by Mark Silva
President Barack Obama is likely to sign that $410-billion "omnibus spending bill'' laden with the "earmarks'' that the new president says he is determined to block from now on - so says Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff, a former Illinois congressman who had his name on $8.5 million of the earmarks that moved forward with this bill.
"Last year's business,'' Emanuel called those projects on CBS News' Face the Nation.
And there's a bunch of last year's business in this year's spending bill with Emanuel's stamp on it, our friend, David Lightman, at McClatchy Newspapers reports: 16 projects, worth about $8.5 million in the bill the Senate is scheduled to begin debating today.
"Among the projects with Emanuel's name attached are $900,000 for equipment at Chicago's Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum; $95,000 for "educational expenses" at the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview, Ill.; and $950,000 for "street rehabilitation" in the village of Franklin Park, Ill..'' Lightman notes of a bill containing about 9,000 earmarks sought by members of Congress, in a $410 billion bill to keep the federal government going through Sept. 30.
Earmarks represent about one percent of the overall measure, which boosts federal spending by 8 percent. The president will demand cleaner legislation going forward, and already has with the economic stimulus bill and expansion of health care for children, Emanuel told his host on Face the Nation on Sunday. Does that mean, essentially, that the president may not like this omnibus bill, but will go ahead and sign it while advising the Congress not to do it again, CBS host Bob Schieffer asked.
"In not so many words, yes,'' Emanuel replied.
Emanuel was a congressman from Chicago until Jan. 2. Much of this spending bill was written in 2008 and stalled when the Democratic-led Congress and former President George W. Bush disagreed on spending levels, Lightman notes. Emanuel's name remains on the bill, but senior adviser Sarah Feinberg explains", "He has no control over it."
Feinberg says the projects should not be viewed as Emanuel's earmarks, but "funding that belongs to the people of the Fifth District of Illinois." He represented the district for six years. And "most'' of his earmarks were cosponsored by other members of the Illinois delegation.
House Appropriations Committee spokeswoman Kirstin Brost, when asked why Emanuel, like other former members of Congress, still has his name on earmarks, said, "Why not?"
Lightman reports of Emanuel:
"He joined members from several states on a $404,000 earmark for Great Lakes Basin program for soil erosion and sediment control. Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Danny Davis, both Illinois Democrats, also sought the planetarium funds, and Emanuel teamed with another Illinois Democrat, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, for the Kohl money.
"Davis also joined Emanuel on a $294,772 earmark for job training and placement money for low and moderate income people, and other delegation members teamed with Emanuel on an earmark with unspecified funds for the Union Pacific Northwest rail line and $300,000 for a criminal justice grant to help curb violence in Chicago.
"He was alone on other projects, including $1 million to Northwestern University for Great Lakes restoration, a $1.2 million juvenile justice grant to Chicago public schools; $190,000 to the Children's Memorial Research Center in Chicago; $190,000 for a homeless facility in Palatine, Ill., and local road projects.
"The overall spending bill would provide an 8 percent increase in spending, and while the earmarks represent less than 1 percent of the cost, they've become political fodder for budget critics.''
"The president campaigned against wasteful spending, and he ought to veto this bill," Lightman quotes House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio as saying.
Comments
Darth Vader (Rahm Emanuel) and his boss President HopeyChangey are both hopeless hypocrites.
This only proves once again that any "solemn pledge" made during the campaign by President HopeyChangey was just hot air--the same kind of empty rhetoric we've heard before.
Posted by: Inconvenient Truth | March 3, 2009 9:21 AM
Not all earmarks are bad "Pork". Does any of the before mentioned spending sound wasteful? Combatting erosion? Job training for low income people? Don't we want them working and off welfare? This is more Republican smoke where there's no fire. Use some common sense people, wouldn't we want to have some sort of control over where the money gets spent? The Republicans are only crying foul because they can't think of any other way to get attention.
Posted by: postulantk | March 3, 2009 11:32 PM
This spending is all bullsheet, and YES, it is wasteful spending at the Federal level. Upgrades to Franklin Park roads, Chicago's Planetarium, eroision control are NOT federal concerns and myself in Arizona is getting tired of paying for political payback projects in other states!
Posted by: joepoor | March 4, 2009 12:08 PM
Politics in Chicago has a history of being the most corrupt city in the US for more than 50 years, lets not forget Obama, who thinks like FDR, we do not need the kind of stimulus crap he has proposed. I think is is a borderline idiot, who cannot find anyone for his cabinet without nominating tax cheats. Most all economists say the recovery had just started when he intervened, then blamed is ALL on Bush. Why is America and the EU the only ones worried about carbon emissions, look at China, India, all of Asia, Russia and all the third world countries contributing to polluters, we are a fraction of that. If he had been honest in the campaign about socialism, he would never have been elected, too bad he was, now it is costing all of us dearly, and will only get worse.
Posted by: wlennon | March 9, 2009 12:12 PM
Chicago is far from perfect, as is the State of Illinois. Meanwhile Chicago brings in the most visitors and spenders and having a good planetarium is important for visitors and use by our students, at all levels.
Unlike people from many of the Sunbelt States, our visitors lust for educational venues, not just sitting in the sun or getting golf lessons. We are an educational and information hub. Yes, we have fun and laugh but you don't have to be sitting poolside to find fun.
Posted by: mzmarlena | April 12, 2009 9:48 AM