Posted on 03/05/2009 5:50:10 AM PST by Libloather
Dueling Dems have Obama in earmark jam
By JONATHAN MARTIN | 3/5/09 4:24 AM EST
On Tuesday, one of the House’s old bulls sent a warning to President Barack Obama on earmarks: Don’t pick this fight.
On Wednesday, two of the Senate’s highest-profile reformers suggested: Don’t go wobbly on us now.
In the context of the trillions of dollars being thrown around in Washington these days, the renewed fight over earmarks is relatively small potatoes.
But the conflicting taunts vividly illustrate some of the pressures from divergent constituencies on the new president — pressures that are proving a good bit harder to reconcile in office than they were on the campaign trail.
Obama can either walk in lockstep with legislative leaders of his own party, people he needs to push his agenda. Or he can keep the good-government credentials that are part of his public image.
But it will be tough to do both.
Obama has signaled that he’ll sign the omnibus spending bill, with all its 9,000-plus earmarks, but his top aides are saying that they still intend to curb the practice — or, as White House press secretary Robert Gibbs put it this week, “draw some very clear lines.”
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) is urging Obama to go further.
“He can set the stage after the omnibus and say, ‘Don’t try this again,’” Feingold said in an interview, calling this a “golden opportunity” to push toward eliminating earmarks.
Feingold on Wednesday joined with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), his partner on the campaign finance law that bears their names, to unveil legislation aimed at giving the president a line item veto.
The two getting the band back together was a reminder that there is another group expecting much from the election of Obama — the good-government crowd.
“One of the best things from President Obama’s campaign was his effort to deal with earmarks and wasteful spending,” said Feingold, as if to remind the president of his promises.
Still, Feingold acknowledged there is “tremendous pressure” on Obama to not push the earmark issue.
That may be putting it mildly.
The response from top Democrats on Capitol Hill has been unmistakable.
One Hill Democrat, firing a warning shot, suggested that the president ought not overlook his own stake in the omnibus bill — namely, the more than $315 million in earmarks in the measure requested by Vice President Joe Biden, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Cabinet members while they were still in Congress last year.
Asked about Obama’s intentions on earmarks, one top Democratic Senate aide replied curtly: “I’d find [House Majority Leader Steny] Hoyer’s comments from yesterday as a sign of the mood on the Hill.”
“I don’t think the White House has the ability to tell us what to do. I hope all of you got that down,” Hoyer told reporters Tuesday, while also noting, not incidentally, that Obama himself had once sought earmarks.
“Members feel like they never have anybody coming up to them and saying: ‘Why did you get money for that road near my house paved?’” said a senior House Democratic leadership aide, voicing the belief of many on the Hill that real voters care little about the practice, especially when they’re seeing the benefit of it in their own communities.
Earmarks, said the aide, “are easily demagogued and demonized.”
The view among top Democrats on the Hill can be translated as: Yes, bashing earmarks made for a good campaign talking point, especially in running against the spending-obsessed McCain. But don’t make us actually give up important projects for our districts and states at a time of deep economic need. After all, we know what is best for our constituents and, in any event, the money is going to be spent somewhere.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may have put it most succinctly last week: “We cannot let spending be done by a bunch of nameless, faceless bureaucrats.”
So Obama now faces a question of how much of his political capital he wants to spend on a prerogative fiercely guarded by members of Congress. At a time when he’s facing major challenges in trying to revive the economy and pursue a new foreign policy, does he really want to agitate the old bulls in his own party over a process issue?
In part to burnish his own outsider credentials and in part to keep McCain at bay on the issue, Obama pledged to curb the inclusion of excessive individual spending projects.
“We need earmark reform, and when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure we’re not spending money unwisely,” Obama said at the first presidential debate last October.
The reformers are watching.
“He’s already made one compromise, which is to say he’s signing the bill,” said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, who called the move “appeasement” that could make it tougher for Obama to take a harder line down the road.
But Obama aides note that omnibus was “last year’s business” and point to their refusal to include earmarks in the stimulus bill the president signed into law last month.
Ellis gives Obama credit for the stimulus stance but said they’re now eyeing him closely on spending for 2010.
He isn’t alone.
In addition to his own party’s congressional leaders and the reform crowd, Obama has another group looking over his shoulder on earmarks: those pesky, out-of-power Republicans.
“The president has made some very explicit promises when it comes to earmarks, and in order to keep them, he is going to have to stand up to the Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, like Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner.
Steel, who urged Obama to veto the catch-all spending bill, noted that some congressional Democrats had raised concerns about the measure and sought to divide the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Will the president side with them, or with the Democrats’ big spenders?”
The end result will most likely be, as it so often is in Washington, compromise.
A House Democratic leadership aide said they were open to some reforms.
“We’re not going to eliminate them, but we can pursue more accountability and transparency,” said the aide.
And the White House doesn’t seem to be interested in doing away with them altogether, offering language that suggests alteration but not abolition.
“I think the president will outline ways moving forward that he thinks are the best set of practices for the dozens and dozens of appropriations bills that will come his way over the course of his presidency,” Gibbs said Wednesday.
Newsmax just published a list of the top 20 earmarkers in the omnibus bill. Read em and weep.
1. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. — $122.80 million.
2. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. — $114.48 million.
3. Kit Bond, R-Mo. — $85.69 million.
4. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. — $77.90 million.
5. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. — $75.91 million.
6. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska — $74 million.
7. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa — $66.86 million.
8. James Inhofe, R-Okla. — $53.13 million.
9. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. — $51.19 million.
10. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii — $46.38 million.
11. Patty Murray, D-Wash. — $39.22 million.
12. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. — $36.55 million.
13. Pat Leahy, D-Vt. — $36.16 million.
14. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. — $35.58 million.
15. Robert Casey, D-Pa. — $27.17 million.
16. Harry Reid, D-Nev. — $26.63 million.
17. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. — $25.32 million.
18. Herb Kohl, D-Wis. — $23.83 million.
19. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. — $21.96 million.
20. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. (Retired) — $19.56 million.
Unbelievable hypocrites in the Republican party...just amazing...
The sooner we accept it as the norm, the better. Conservatives are to the GOP as Blacks are to the DEMs. Just a bought and sold group of voters with nowhere else to turn. And when they do buy us off, it’s usually not with anything resembling fiscal conservatism. They’ll cut some taxes, but keep on spending, which is really just a stealth tax, weakening the power of our tax dollars. Or they’ll put out an executive order banning abortion funds in the third world. And we’re all supposed to cheer. The results are what they are. The GOP sucks.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may have put it most succinctly last week: “We cannot let spending be done by a bunch of nameless, faceless bureaucrats.”
He continued, “That’s the job of incompetent boobs like me!”
agreed...we need a new party.
Zero doesn't represent good government. Zero represents oppressive government.
These R’s, most of them, are good people. They need to announce they’re pulling the earmarks.
Where did we hide the reset button? Is there anyway we can reboot the entire system?
If they are good people they will do that. If they don’t pull the earmarks then they are no different than the corrupt dems ruining our country.
So let’s see what happens. You can pretty much right off a turncoat like Spector.
I was surprised to see Inhofe in there.
I think the closest thing to a reset button is a brand new party. Run against BOTH parties. Hell, if Perot hadn’t been such a kook, he might have pulled it off in 92.
Deeds, not words. Watch what they do, not what they say. They clearly are NOT good senators. They are pigs.
I’m not surprised to see any of them in there. That’s the trick. Lower your expectations to match what actually is. Then deal with it. They are liars.
Bond won't. He's retiring and is unaccountable to anyone in the state at this point. He has voted in an un-conservative manner more and more often since announcing this. He actually stood up and stated that getting earmarks was his duty; thus defensing his action.
To make matter worse, Roy Blunt; the front runner in replacing him, has applauded Bond, and said he would do the same. Then, when things couldn't look weirder for a Missouri conservative, McCaskill, the dimmest and dumbest of the bunch, comes out saying that she has problems supporting it, because of the earmarks (not that she won't ultimately vote for it, though)
Talk about disinformation and spin. First, we have to believe that Obama is the victim in all of this. Those "bad cops" in Congress are shoving earmarks down Obama's throat even though as a senator he was a big user of them. And instead of recommending that Obama veto the bill and demand that the earmarks be removed, Feingold is telling us to wait until next time.
The Dems and Reps have so loaded up this gigantic bill with earmarks that it is doubtful they have much left. It will take awhile to replenish the cupboard with pork.
And now we have McCain and Feingold resurrecting the line item veto, which was declared unconstitutional last time I checked.
The bastard ...
. . . until next year.
Not that I condone violence, but if I met any of these people in person I would have trouble not punching them in the face.
I wouldn’t blame you. I would have nothing useful or decent to say to any of them. I’d probably just call them pigs.
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