LOL I Can't Stop Laughin'!! Bush...Earmarks...LOL, OMG!!!

[Brassmask]

He actually had the vulgar temerity to say that NOW!  NOW!!!?!?!?  pork is a problem!!

LOL  OMG, is this pathetic or what?  The Dems just said last week that they were to halt all earmarks in the coming session and now Bush can't even say that he thinks it should stop immediately.  He's going to lay out some reforms "soon"!  It's pathetic!!

This is just getting crazier by the day.  LOL  I"m still laughin'.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/18/bush-earmarks/

31,709 Earmarks Later, Bush Decides Pork Is A Problem

In 2006, Congress allocated a record $71.77 billion “to 15,832 special projects, more than double the $29.11 billion spent on 4,155 pork-barrel projects in 1994.” In 2005, Congress inserted 15,877 pork projects into spending bills. In his weekend radio address, President Bush called on Congress to reform this earmarking process:

• ne of the best ways we can impose more discipline on federal spending is by addressing the problem of earmarks. … My administration will soon lay out a series of reforms that will help make earmarks more transparent, that will hold the members who propose earmarks more accountable, and that will help reduce the number of earmarks inserted into large spending bills.

Pork is a problem. But Bush should also address reform in his own administration. Bush’s earmarks are much tougher to find, often appearing “only in closely held supplements separate from the public budget books. … [A]s head of the executive branch, the president often doesn’t need earmarks: Once federal agencies get funding from Congress, his appointees are fairly free to steer sums to places, programs and vendors as the administration decides.” A few examples of Bush’s bacon:

– “While the Education Department’s budget would be cut, Mr. Bush propose[d] a 16% increase to $204 million for teaching sexual abstinence in high schools, a popular cause for social conservatives.”

– Rep. Anne Northup (R-KY), “a target of Democrats in this year’s midterm elections,” secured “a $3.5 million research grant for a local surgical team. The funds came not from congressional earmarks but from Pentagon accounts, according to the report.”

– Bush requested “$10 million for Preserve America grants for communities’ historic preservation efforts and $50 million for the Helping America’s Youth Initiative — also among programs championed by Mrs. Bush.”

Bush may say he’s against pork, but in his six years as President, Bush has never once vetoed any of Congress’s pork-laden spending bills.



LOL  Freaking Hilarious!!!

[BT]

The entire porkbusters movement was launched by conservatives more than a year ago. I wouldn't be so fast for giving dems credit for a movement they did not start.

[Brassmask]

The entire porkbusters movement was launched by conservatives more than a year ago. I wouldn't be so fast for giving dems credit for a movement they did not start.

I wouldn't give the "conservatives" so much credit for something they allegedly "started" but never bothered getting around to enacting.  The Dems haven't even been sworn in yet, and they're already signed on to stop it.  Even Robert Byrd, the so-called kind of pork has agreed to the No Earmarks proposal.

It must be tiring work trying to figure out ways to ascribe false credit to conservatives and the GOP.  Conservatives have had total domination for the last few years and they "allocated a record $71.77 billion “to 15,832 special projects"".  The conservatives that have served recently must not have been true conservatives.  It would be more honorable for you guys to actually own the mistakes made by the GOP in your name and denounce them for having been the liars and cheats we've been saying they were all this time.

[Xavier_Onassis]

These clowns are conservatives only in the sense that they prefer conserves to jam.

This is a riotous joke. Beyond hilarious.

What's next? Iraq War Bonds?

[BT]

I wouldn't give the "conservatives" so much credit for something they allegedly "started" but never bothered getting around to enacting.

Not true, to date

http://www.volpac.org/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=451

and this:

WASHINGTON — The sterile, confused lame-duck session of the Republican-controlled 109th Congress ended with a quiet victory by reformers that staved off an estimated 10,000 earmarks. But it could not be called a farewell to pork. Last Thursday, as the House neared adjournment, Democrats signaled they may countenance a return to free and easy spending ways when they assume the majority Jan. 4.

....

Moran, D-8th, told those attending the Arlington County Democratic Committee;s annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner on June 9 that while he in theory might oppose the fiscal irresponsibility of earmarks - funneling money to projects in a member of Congress's district - he understands the value they have to constituents When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee I'm going to earmark the s*** out of it, Moran buoyantly told a crowd of 450 attending the event

http://www.bizzyblog.com/2006/12/14/meet-the-new-pork-same-as-the-old-pork/

[Brassmask]

I wouldn't give the "conservatives" so much credit for something they allegedly "started" but never bothered getting around to enacting.

Not true, to date

http://www.volpac.org/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=451

and this:

WASHINGTON — The sterile, confused lame-duck session of the Republican-controlled 109th Congress ended with a quiet victory by reformers that staved off an estimated 10,000 earmarks. But it could not be called a farewell to pork. Last Thursday, as the House neared adjournment, Democrats signaled they may countenance a return to free and easy spending ways when they assume the majority Jan. 4.

....

Moran, D-8th, told those attending the Arlington County Democratic Committee;s annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner on June 9 that while he in theory might oppose the fiscal irresponsibility of earmarks - funneling money to projects in a member of Congress's district - he understands the value they have to constituents When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee I'm going to earmark the s*** out of it, Moran buoyantly told a crowd of 450 attending the event

http://www.bizzyblog.com/2006/12/14/meet-the-new-pork-same-as-the-old-pork/

That's all well and good and I applaud their adding some transperancy to our government, however, that law does not STOP earmarks.  It only allows the public to go and look up people who have received federal funds.  In and of itself, that is a good thing, but it doesn't address the problem of rampant earmarking.  The 109th congress still, without the 10,000 that the group allegedly stopped, set the record for most in the history of US in one year.

Moran is an ass who earmarked money for something called Project M that has to do with magnetic levitation and themain contractor for has given him $17,000 in donations.  If he tries it after the Dem leadership made a big to do out of no Earmarks, he'll suffer mightily.

[BT]

that law does not STOP earmarks.

Neither does the dems moratorium. Methinks your kudos are premature.

[Plane]

Brass has a point , the conservatives have been far too weak on being conservative .

They forgot what it was that brought them the mandate in 94.


But I don't expect he is right to expect Liberals to out conserve the Conservatives .

[BT]

Brass has a point , the conservatives have been far too weak on being conservative .

He may have a point concerning certain conservatives dropping the ball.

[Plane]

Brass has a point , the conservatives have been far too weak on being conservative .

He may have a point concerning certain conservatives dropping the ball.

By certain , I think you mean a certain number of them , enough of them to let all the moral force leak out of the movement.

[BT]

By certain , I think you mean a certain number of them , enough of them to let all the moral force leak out of the movement.

I think sometime we equate conservative with Republican and that is just not so. Conservatism is a philosophy, a body of ideas not unlike libertarianism or liberalism.

Republican is a political affiliation. Just as Democrat is a political affiliation. And the purpose of that affiliation is to gain and exercise power in the form of government. Another purpose is to retain that power or regain that power One way to do the former  is to reward the base through legislation or largesse. For the latter convincing promises must be made.

The sin of which the conservative republicans are guilty is of being pragmatic. The same will happen with liberal democrats.

rinse

repeat

[Brassmask]

The sin of which the conservative republicans are guilty is of being pragmatic. The same will happen with liberal democrats.

rinse

repeat

The difference is that the moment the Dems break the moratorium, I will denounce them.  Already, my disdain for Harry Reid has increased since he added an afore agreed upon point to a bill that was closed on the last day.  He did it "in the middle of the night".

Regardless of his arrangements, the perception was there and it appeared to be just what he had denounced the GOP for.  I hate him and his political ways.

have some freaking honor about yourselves, for god's sake.

[BT]

have some freaking honor about yourselves, for god's sake.

I think you look at the dems the same way i look at the repubs. If they give me what i want fine, if not, to hell with them.

[Plane]

By certain , I think you mean a certain number of them , enough of them to let all the moral force leak out of the movement.

I think sometime we equate conservative with Republican and that is just not so. Conservatism is a philosophy, a body of ideas not unlike libertarianism or liberalism.

Republican is a political affiliation. Just as Democrat is a political affiliation. And the purpose of that affiliation is to gain and exercise power in the form of government. Another purpose is to retain that power or regain that power One way to do the former  is to reward the base through legislation or largesse. For the latter convincing promises must be made.

The sin of which the conservative republicans are guilty is of being pragmatic. The same will happen with liberal democrats.

rinse

repeat

Ok you are right , but Republicans were the vehicle of Conservatism in 94 and this brought them a mandate that they are busy giveing away for the sake of "pragmatism".

[Brassmask]

have some freaking honor about yourselves, for god's sake.

I think you look at the dems the same way i look at the repubs. If they give me what i want fine, if not, to hell with them.

That's pretty much what I feel.  I also spend a lot of time informing them what I want.