Intervention Required

The Senate has passed a new spending bill in the amount of $410 billion. President Obama is expected to sign the bill immediately.

I know promises really have no place in politics, but you will recall that one of Obama's primary campaign promises had to do with eliminating earmarks, pork, and wasteful spending.

The omnibus spending bill includes more than 8,000 congressional "earmarks," which total almost $8 billion. The earmarks have caused critics to question President Barack Obama's pledge to end wasteful spending, but Obama administration officials say the bill is a holdover from the previous Congress.

I guess Obama is taking a free pass on this first budget of his? And, not surprisingly, the Republicans are having just as much fun on this spending spree as any of the Democrats.

Many groups, including the Libertarian Party, and requesting (as a hopeless formality, I'm sure) that Obama veto the bill.

America’s third largest party urged President Barack Obama Tuesday to live up to his promise to “end politics as usual in Washington” and veto a $410 billion spending bill. The legislation includes 8,570 earmarks totaling $7.7 billion, a practice Obama pledged to end as part of his pitch to voters during the 2008 election.

“Republicans already broke their weeks-old promise to stand for fiscal responsibility by fighting to have their fair share of earmarks included in the bill,” said Libertarian National Committee Communications Director Donny Ferguson. “Will Obama keep his promise to end earmarks by vetoing this bill, or will this be the latest in a long string of broken Obama promises? Is Barack Obama a man of his word, or just another politician?”

The White House has indicated Obama will sign the bill, despite his earlier promises to oppose earmarking.

“Republicans are banding together to grab taxpayer cash and Obama is ignoring his own pledge to stop the practice. With Republicans and Democrats working together to continue wasteful spending it’s abundantly clear the Libertarian Party is the only party agreeing with the American people that earmarks must be abolished,” said
Ferguson.

Passing large spending bills is acting like a drug for our government (GOP & Dems alike). They are getting such a rush from finding "new and improved" ways of spending our money. But the system is growing immune to the rush, so each new spending program is going to have to be more monumental than the last in order to get the same rush. Our government is on a downward spiral. It's time for intervention!!


Questioning Politics