Obama budget director: We'll cut pork after '09 spending bill

[ShockediSay]

Source: CNNPolitics.com

Facing mounting criticism of a spending package packed with billions of dollars in earmarks, the Obama administration made a vow Sunday: This president will bring a halt to pork-laden bills.
Peter Orszag says it is too late to cut earmarks from the spending bill inherited from the Bush administration.

" will not happen when the president has the full legislative and appropriations process in place," Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told CNN's "State of the Union with John King."

He argued that the White House had little choice but to support the $410 billion omnibus spending bill, which it inherited from the previous administration. The bill would keep the government running through 2009.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/08/obama.earmarks/?...

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NO!

This OMB director is undermining Obama's credibility
and playing into the hands of Rush Limpbough and his
financial/business backers.

The answer:

Veto the bill and strip all earmarks out,
then for those that are meritorious, pass
a supplemental.

IT'S THAT SIMPLE!!!

[Mudoria]

1. He should veto it and tell them to send him a clean bill without the pork.

Now is as good a time as any to stop Congress from loading up from the trough.

[ShockediSay]

3. Beat me to my own comment !

Great minds move in the same channels

but seriously, I think a consensus is

developing along these lines.

Thanks

[emilyg]

9. Agree,

[salguine]

12. No shit. Obama DID campaign as the candidate promising to halt the pork. Now even the

fucking emergency rescue plan has more pork in it than ever. NOW would be a good time to strip all that shit out, no?

[liberal N proud]

18. A veto sure would shut up the GOP

The GOP would lose one of their biggest current talking points.

They couldn't say that Obama campaigned on removing earmarks but...

Of course then they would all be pissed because their pet project was cut.

[tomhayes]

2. Why do earmarks AUTOMATICALLY equal pork??

Pork is wasteful spending. Earmarks are directed spending.

Most earmarks are not pork.

Shouldn't congress direct spending where it is needed, or should they just trust agencies and states to do the right thing?

Change we can believe in does not equal instantnseoues perfection. (That's the argument they use against healthcare too, if it's government run but not *perfect* then we can't do it .)

Thinking so is playing into the hands of Limbaugh and McCain, who are both raving idiots.

[ShockediSay]

7. NO !

I don't pretend to know the difference about pork,
wasteful spending and earmarks.

When you say:
Shouldn't congress direct spending where it is needed, or should they just trust agencies and states to do the right thing?

I say the porky wasteful earmarks typically come from Lobby Lawyers
{Like Bob Dole, Billy Tauzin, Tom Daschele and Trent Lott} - - - IMHO

I say strip them out of the so-called omnibus budget bill and
then put them into a supplemental budget where line by line review
would be available

The states had anti- logrolling provisions sometimes which prevented
bills from being passed that had unrelated provisions buried therein
from being passed

[tomhayes]

15. I don't really give a shit about a few billion in pork right now

When we lost another 600,000 jobs this month!!!

This obsession with examining line buy line everything in the spending bill negotiated LAST YEAR instead of focusing on the problem we have today and tomorrow seems like political grandstanding to me.

I don't like pork , but really I don't care at this point in time about small amounts of it. We have bigger fish to fry. I say we do a better job on budget going forward now, not spending weeks or redoing past business. (Still think that we need to take a *HARD* look at war crimes going back though.)

We are talking weeks/months if the scuttle the bill and start over right? And then all the grandstanding that comes from the Republicans about shit they think are wasteful, like climate research, or the PORK practice of giving money to study volcanoes given to states that HAVE VOLCANOES IN THEM!!??!!!??? That's a EARMARK!!

And McCain just called for GM to declare bankruptcy so unions can lose benefits and small suppliers can be wiped out. Should we deal with that, or should we focus in that executives are flying business class instead of buying coach tickets off of Priceline.com??

And BTW, this is what they say about WELFARE. Some people who got WELFARE had enough money to buy a big screen TV - SO welfare spending was wasteful pork!! WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT

[geek tragedy]

4. Ugh. Does John McCain post here now? n/t

[bbinacan]

8. When it comes to McCain

and his attitude about pork, I agree. And President Obama promised to veto anything with pork. He needs to fulfill that promise.

[MarjorieG]

5. As been said, earmarks are just 1%, sometimes okay, and now attributable, per Obama's help in Senate

This is not as bad a bill as GOP pushing, really spending the WH postponed because for how Dems see appropriations, energy, etc.

People are generally jittery about spening, so GOP can say anything and will resonate.

PS. Nothing is ever that simple.

[Andy823]

6. The problem I see

Is that this will will pass right now when it comes to a vote because "BOTH" parties have their finger in the so called "earmarks". Sure some republicans are bitching about it, but it will pass. If he vetoes the bill and sends it back, it might not pass and then what, do it all over again, and again while the republicans blame Obama because the government can't function without a budget bill passing?

No matter what he does they are going to bitch about it, at least this bill will most likely get through, others might not! Just my two cents worth!

[ShockediSay]

14. So what's wrong w/ a veto, a new bill w/out pork

and leaving the rest to a well reviewed supplemental?

[Cha]

26. Exactly..and mccain's

grandstanding.

[MadMaddie]

10. He also said that some of these "so called pork projects"

were negotiated last year before the election. He likened it to a relief pitcher coming in at the 9th inning, no matter how much the relief wants a do over of the earlier innings, there is nothing he can do. He is dealt the game as is...just as the new administration is.

In the new bills they have reduced pork by 75%. That is not 100% but that is an improvement.

I still see people wanting an overnight fix, everyone needs to accept that every action that needs to be taken is not going to be fixed in one night.

[earcandle]

11. Agreed!

[crimsonblue]

13. The pork doesn't matter.

It accounts for so little of the Omnibus bill to be inconsequential to fiscal responsibility. We need earmarks to improve state and local infrastructure, and to provide needed social programs in many states.

[Psephos]

16. SUUUUUUUUUUURRRRREEEEE you will n/t

[amandabeech]

17. Obama has to get in the room with Pelosi and Reid,

and they all have to decide that they're playing on the same team.
Apparently, Pelosi and Reid got together over the weekend and cursed at each other and Obama wasn't present.

Then they have to decide on a defensible, simple "Team Position," taking into account past positions, and stick with it for however long the Republicans keep screaming.

It's their story and they have to stick to it.

Nobody goes off message on CNN.

That's how you get killed.

Where's Axelrod and Plouffe? They enforced message discipline during the campaign and they have to figure out how to do it now or they're going to get killed on every news cycle.

I know Obama is trying to herd cats, but we have to do better than this.

[hugo_from_TN]

23. They're not on the same team.

Reid/Pelosi are a different branch of government and have a different agenda (at times) from the executive branch. People have to get it through their head that Reid & Pelosi do not work for Obama.

[amandabeech]

25. Reid, Pelosi and Obama are all Democrats.

To me, that means that they are on the same team even though they are in different branches of government.

I wish people would get THAT through their heads.

[Vinca]

19. The Democrats in Congress should wise up.

They should pull all their earmarks out of the bill and let the Republicans stand alone with their goody bags.

[Maine-ah]

20. I like that!

[Psephos]

24. A very smart idea

don't hold your breath, though

[marshall]

21. Lord, help me cut the pork, but not yet

Congress's version of St. Augustine's sinner's prayer.

[No Elephants]

22. Oh, stop. Cut it out. ( Literally.)

[Telly Savalas]

27. If Orzag follows through on the promise, it doesn't play into anyone's hands.

The goons can whine all they want, but the 2010 budget would be an effective rebuttal which occurs well before the mid-term election.