Posted by
Defend America on Saturday, December 26, 2009 12:44:42 PM
Obama falls short on pledge to curtail earmarks, fiscal hawks say
By Walter Alarkon
-
12/26/09 08:04 AM ET
Fiscal
hawks in Congress say President Barack Obama hasn't followed through on
a pledge to lower federal spending on local projects.
Earmarks
are expected to total nearly $12 billion in fiscal 2010, according to
fiscal watchdog groups. While that number is less than the $15 billion
total in 2009, lawmakers from both parties said Obama hasn’t kept up
the kind of pressure he showed during his first weeks in office or that
he promised as a candidate.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said Obama made earmark reform "a very big
part of [his] campaign" but still signed this month two massive
spending measures that both included approximately $4 billion in
earmarks.
Feingold,
who broke with his party to oppose both the $447 billion 2010 omnibus
spending bill and the $636 billion 2010 Pentagon spending bill, said
the president could have used his veto pen to reject the measures and
force lawmakers to cut earmark funding.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/73617-obama-falls-short-on-pledge-to-curtail-earmarks-fiscal-hawks-say