What ever happened to that “line by line” elimination of earmarks?

If you haven’t been paying attention to the news lately, you may have missed the fact that President Obama just signed a Congressional spending bill that had some earmarks in it and they will cost us taxpayers a little bit of money.

Oh yeah, by “some”, I mean 8,816 of them and by “little bit of money”, I mean $7.6 billion.

But Mr. President, I thought we you getting rid of all of those earmarks! After all, didn’t you say the following:

"We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress' seniority, rather than the merit of the project."

“Our earmark system, some call it pork-barrel spending, in Washington, is fraught with abuse. It badly needs reform.”

Oh yes, that’s right, that was candidate Obama speaking, not President Obama. There seems to be a growing gap between those two, doesn’t there?

Now I could sit here and list out the top offenders and the most absurd projects, but that’s already been done to death. I would rather explore the reasons behind the signing of this bill as I find that to be far more interesting... and troubling.

First, I have a question…why is he signing this bill in the first place?

Here’s a quote from President Obama about the bill just after he signed it:

"Let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability.”

Have you ever heard a president sign a bill and within minutes start criticizing it? I mean if the bill is such a bad thing, why is did he sign it?

Well in my estimation, the answer to those questions can be one three choices.

Reason #1. He’s a liar.

I know that’s a rather plain way of putting it, but I think it’s appropriate in this case. He signed the bill because he lied to us. He lied throughout the campaign, he lied after he was elected and he’s lying to us now.

Reason #2. He’s lazy.

Here’s another quote from President Obama regarding this bill:

"I am signing an imperfect... bill."

Wait a minute, if it’s imperfect, why don’t you fix it?

It’s because he’s lazy.

We all know how much he loves his weekend getaways with Michelle and with his kids having Spring Break, Lord knows the business of our country has to take a back seat.

By the way, didn’t a large number of Governor Palin’s detractors say that a mother of five couldn’t be Vice President because her family would take away from the business of the country?

Reason #3. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are running the show.

While I think I was getting warm with the first three, I have a feeling I’m getting red-hot now.

Obama’s inexperience has been well documented and this is just the latest example of it, as he clearly could not control the party he supposedly leads.

If he could control them, I really think he would not be forced to sign this embarrassing bill filled with the very earmarks that he’s been heavily criticizing for the past nine months.

Truth be told, I really think this latest capitulation is due in part to a combination of all three options.

But who knows, maybe this is just a temporary course of action during “unprecedented times”.

Hopefully he’s telling the truth and this will be the end of business as usual as we all know it in Washington.

Hopefully, he will find some semblance of financial responsibility.

Hopefully, he will usher in the change that he promised, but so far, has failed to produce.

I can remain hopeful…just not optimistic.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John