What the hell are you guys talking about? What did you expect from a person who always claimed to be a pragmatist and what other disappointments have you had?
The
only thing I can critique Obama on so far is his poor vetting of some of his cabinet nominees, other than that he's been in office for a month and a half, managed to push through a hugely important stimulus package, announced his intention to proceed with his health-care initiative despite the economic times, given a date to get the majority of the troops out of iraq, re-focused American foreign policy on Afghanistan and begun funding stem-cell research.
This spending bill was written months before he came into office, vetoing it and sending it back to congress would only cause delays and piss off the congress that he needs to work with him to get his major initiatives passed.
So, as he's signing the bill he comes out with the statement:
“I am signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it’s necessary for the ongoing functions of government, and we have a lot more work to do. We can’t have Congress bogged down at this critical juncture in our economic recovery.But I also view this as a departure point for more far-reaching change.”
He, and Pelosi, announced that in the future earmarks destined to a for-profit enterprise would be subject to competitive bidding.
Also,
Quote:
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since taking over Congress in 2007, Democrats have already substantially reduced funding for earmarks from the 2006 level, when Republicans last controlled the House and Senate.
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politico.com
Looking at the earmarks themselves, there are 8,570 in the bill, accounting for 7.7 billion, or 1.8% of the bill itself. Of those, almost 7,000 are for less than one million dollars. (forbes.com)
Also, Obama himself, having been a senator when the bill was written, is one of only seven senators with no earmarks in the bill.
In summary: Jesus H. Tap-dancing Christ, what did you expect from this guy? Rainbows and unicorns?