Beltway Snark

Amongst the constant discussion of TARP, Porkulus, auto bailouts, etc. the fact that Congress hasn’t begun to draft the regular omnibus spending bill has been largely forgotten. Never feat though, Congress has started working on that and it’s already looking like one porky mess. Then again, you expected that.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain fought vigorously over who would be toughest on congressional earmarks.

“We need earmark reform,” Obama said in September during a presidential debate in Oxford, Miss. “And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”

President Barack Obama should prepare to carve out a lot of free time and keep the coffee hot this week as Congress prepares to unveil a $410 billion omnibus spending bill that’s riddled with thousands of earmarks, despite his calls for restraint and efforts on Capitol Hill to curtail the practice.

The bill will contain about 9,000 earmarks totaling $5 billion, congressional officials say. Many of the earmarks — loosely defined as local projects inserted by members of Congress — were inserted last year as the spending bills worked their way through various committees.

So while Obama and McCain were slamming earmarks on the camp aign trail, House and Senate members — Democrats and Republicans — were slapping them into spending bills.

“It will be a little embarrassing for the president if he signs a bill with that many earmarks on it,” said Stan Collender, a veteran Washington budget analyst.

Wait, they didn’t get all their pet projects funded in the porkulus bill? I kid, I know that wish list has no end. I’m sure Obama will have no problem signing the porkfest that will invariably end up on his desk, I’m sure all that pork will stimulate the economy or something.

What was that about fiscal responsibility and cutting the deficit?