16 Emanuel earmarks in federal spending bill (Say it ain't so)

Seattle Times ^ | 3/3/2009 | David Lightman

[tobyhill]

Although President Obama has repeatedly pledged to ban congressional earmarks, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has 16 such projects, worth $8.5 million, in the bill the Senate is to begin debating today.

The earmarks include money for a Chicago planetarium and a Chicago suburb. Obama has been relentless in criticizing the use of earmarks; in his address to a joint session of Congress last week, he boasted how the economic-stimulus package was "free of earmarks."

By the end of this week, however, Obama's likely to sign a separate $410 billion spending plan that keeps most domestic programs funded through Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year. It's a plan that contains about 9,000 earmarks.

Emanuel, who until Jan. 2 was a congressman from Chicago, dismissed the bill Sunday as "last year's business." Most of the measure was written in 2008. It stalled when the Democratic-led Congress and former President Bush disagreed on spending levels.

Emanuel's name remains on the bill, and senior adviser Sarah Feinberg explained, "He has no control over it."

[Eva]

No, Obama really did end the charitable giving, but not completely. I think he reduced the tax exemption to 28%. Tax exempt foundations, research centers, churches, etc. could be in real trouble, as well as colleges and universities.