Democrat-controlled Congress gives Obama another huge spending bill

The big spending Democrat-controlled Congress has sent another massive spending bill to President Obama.

The huge 1,132-page, $410 billion Omnibus spending package was six months overdue. The Democrats refused to pass it during President Bush's term because Bush promised to veto the irresponsible spending increases contained in this latest Congressional spending orgy.  

Obama will sign the bill Wednesday, once again breaking his transparency promises. In signing this spending boondoggle into law, Obama yet again does one thing while saying something different. Obama will sign off on thousands of earmarks and announce steps to curb future earmarks. The Democrats' mantra that the earmarks in this legislation are "last year's business" is bovine fecal matter. The increased budget deficit resulting from this bill isn't going to be paid by last year's taxes.

The omnibus contains unbelievable amounts of pork barrel spending. Taxpayers for Common Sense found 8,570 disclosed earmarks in the bill, worth $7.7 billion.

During the presidential campaign, Obama made several promises to reduce earmarks:

• Go "line by line" over earmarks to make sure money being spent wisely

"And, absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."

Source: The first presidential debate, Sept. 26, 2008

• Reduce earmarks to 1994 levels

"Barack Obama is committed to returning earmarks to less than $7.8 billion a year, the level they were at before 1994."

Source: "The Change We Need in Washington"

• Require more disclosure and a waiting period for earmarks

Through the "Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act, will shed light on all earmarks by disclosing the name of the legislator who asked for each earmark, along with a written justification, 72 hours before they can be approved by the full Senate."

Source: Obama ethics plan

The debate over the irresponsible pork barrel spending returned the limelight to Senator McCain, who called earmarks evil:

"This evil has grown, and it has grown, and it has grown," said McCain, who called the earmarking process a "gateway drug" to more egregious, and possibly illegal, forms of influence peddling.

Adding more insult to injury Congress even used this bill to provide itself a 10 percent increase in its own budget -- now totaling $4.4 billion.