Obama 'Fact Check' shows Democrats spend like former GOP

Congressman John Murtha (D-Penn.) was sworn in by House Majority Leader Tip O’Neill in 1974. Murtha is one of many aging Democrats who’ve been in office for decades. Murtha also has a defense of earmarks on his website, with an argument clearly missing the boat that money spent is money spent no matter what financial pot it comes from. [Photo from US House website]The Associated Press, in my opinion, has schmoozed Democrats like most of pomp media, but finally the most influential wire service in the world has done a fact check on President Barack Obama’s budget deficit claims. The result: guilty as charged, both the president and the Democratic members of Congress. The president and Congress fall back on President George W. Bush and the Republicans every time the budget deficit is mentioned. They’re like a bunch of kids standing in a circle around a broken vase. When Mom says who did it, a chorus arises, “It wasn’t me!”

If you’re a regular visitor to The US Report, you’ve heard me say responsibility for ridiculous levels of spending and lack of oversight of our taxpayer money should be acknowledged by both political parties. It is obvious the GOP members of Congress—dubbed the “Party of No” by the opposition—have learned a valuable lesson about spending. The Dems may never learn. It’s in their political DNA. They are definitely the “Party of Yes” when it comes to irresponsible spending and oversight.

In a story published Thursday, Obama’s 101st day in office, the AP responded to Obama’s claim, “It wasn’t me.”

Click to read more ...

Congress' nightmare: CAGW Pig Book reveals federal spendthrifts

Citizens Against Government Waste came up with this catchy mascot and slogan to raise awareness of federal spendthrifts.This morning taxpayer watchdog groups spoke from the National Press Club about government spending; the program aired on C-SPAN. I was about to catch David Williams’ remarks when the Florida storms killed our power for the umpteenth time. Williams, policy vice-president for Citizens Against Government Waste, puts the organization’s annual Pig Book together. Also on the program was Tom Schatz, CAGW president. CAGW also had the group’s official mascot, a large pink pig character, on hand and a new slogan, ‘Where’s Pigfoot?’ will hopefully draw attention to ongoing offenses committed by spendthrifts in the US Congress.

CAGW said, “The 2009 Pig Book identified 10,160 projects at a cost of $19.6 billion in the 12 Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2009. A pork project is a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures.” To qualify as pork, an item must satisfy at least 2 of 7 criteria:

Click to read more ...

Omnibus 2009: Federal greed and skewed foreign policy

by Roger King

H.R. 1105, better known as the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, contains a total of 9 appropriations bills with a price tag of $410 billion. Investor's Business Daily said this amounts to an increase of 8% over last year, making it the largest discretionary spending increase since Jimmy Carter. The Democrats waited nearly 5 months to finish writing this bill, knowing that President Bush would refuse to sign it with the provisions they wanted.

This bill passed the House, 245 to 178, and by a 62 to 35 vote in the Senate on a mostly partisan vote. Spending as a percentage of the GDP has increased dramatically this year. Few Americans are aware of the level of spending the bill contained; even fewer are aware of what is on the budget for the future.

Chart from ‘A New Era of Responsibility’ aka the 'Obese Federal Budget' containing even more dollars for one of the biggest money pits in American history—the US Dept.of Education. You could zero out that department and you would not see a single loss in educational quality in public schools. Legislators and the president are clueless on public schools—their kids usually go to private schools.Click the photo to read the budget at the US government website.

Click to read more ...

Earmarks: Obama, GOPers and Dems guilty as charged

I almost dropped my coffee cup this morning when I heard a pundit say Democrats and President Barack Obama are blaming President George W. Bush for overt costs in the massive Omnibus Spending bill. The Democrats have controlled Congress for almost 3 years, and Bush is probably enjoying his leisure time, glad to be done with what is probably the hardest job in the nation for any person. Obama can chide earmarks all he wants to. But if he’s truthful, he will own up to his own astounding earmarks success during one extremely brief tenure in the U.S. Senate.

Conservative and liberal media ignored questionable earmarks, one of which went to a defrocked priest whose organization helped the “most vulnerable” including children. Another earmark, $3 million strong, went for dance movement therapy. And drumroll, please for an earmark Obama co-sponsored: $30 MILLION bucks for the National Writing Project. I’m a writer and I can say that is the biggest waste of $30 million taxpayer bucks I’ve seen yet. We already pay teachers to teach kids to write. You can read about the president’s earmarks at the Barack Obama website. And now for the loaded question: are earmarks constitutional?

The lucky duckies at The National Writing Project are laughing all the way to the bank, $33 MILLION of your taxpayer dollars in hand thanks to President Barack Obama and his earmark co-sponsors.
Look to the Citizens Against Government Waste website for facts on earmarks and how various administrations have justified them. In my opinion, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lied when he said earmarks have been around since George Washington. And two Republicans clouded the truth big-time as well. CAGW said, “[Former] Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) have argued that eliminating earmarks would equate to an unconstitutional delegation of spending discretion to the executive branch.”

Click to read more ...

DeMint leads by example on fiscal conservatism; spoke out on appropriations bill

In the U.S. Senate, there are several Republicans who stay true to fiscal conservatism; one is Sen. Jim DeMint. The outspoken senator from South Carolina actually has the nerve to put the interests of the people above the party—a quality in short supply in Washington at present.

On March 4, DeMint filed 19 amendments to the $410-billion Omnibus Appropriations Bill, a bill that might be more appropriately called the “Omnibus Spendthrift Bill.” Several of those amendments were aimed at striking wasteful pork-barrel projects requested by members; others would prevent taxpayer dollars from being spent in support of controversial policies. Thousands of earmarks were in the final Omnibus bill and many of those earmarks are nothing more than pork inserted because political opportunity presented itself. From fruit flies to wine, members of Congress managed to load up the bill with pet projects that were not vetted by debate and oversight.

Click to read more ...

Chicago to run the US: Obama taps Rahm Emanuel for Chief of Staff

In Chicago Congressman Emanuel speaks at a press conference (7-20-07) attended by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), community leaders and environmental activists. (photo Emanuel Congress pages)Various media are reporting President-elect Barack Obama has asked Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) to be White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel became a member of Congress in 2003. Previously he worked as a senior advisor for President Bill Clinton. In 1989 Emanuel served as a senior advisor and chief fundraiser for Richard M. Daley. Aside from the Daley circle, Emanuel is also part of the Paul Simon circle--he worked on Simon’s 1984 election to the U.S. Senate. And here’s where the Chicago tale gets just more interesting. I doubt other media will explore lovely political triangles like this for you.

Click to read more ...

The GOP had Karl Rove; Obama has David Axelrod

David Axelrod is the political strategist behind the success of many Democratic candidates, Sen. Barack Obama foremost among them. Axelrod is a partner in AKP&D Message and Media Firm. In politics, one hand always scratches the other. In March, 2008, BusinessWeek did an article, ‘The Secret Side of David Axelrod.’ Considering the hearts and kisses media has given the Democratic candidate for president, it comes as no surprise Axelrod was once political editor at The Chicago Tribune.

BusinessWeek notes there’s not a lot of hard data on the AKP&D website. But it’s fairly easy to put simple sums together, and here are a few items worthy of consideration.

Click to read more ...