Campaign Promises – Politics As Usual

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama fought vigorously over who would be toughest on congressional earmarks. During the debate in Oxford, Mississippi he stated that "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."

To all of you who once again believed in the “Hope and Change” mantra, I give you the reality of March 2009. After signing a massive funding bill with almost 8,000 earmarks, he then went on to say that they are not all bad and that’s why he won’t call for their outright elimination.

During the campaign, Obama promised to force Congress to curb its pork-barrel-spending ways. Yet the bill sent from the Democratic-controlled Congress to the White House on Tuesday contained earmarks totaling $5.5 billion.

I guess since the total bill was over $400 Billion dollars, it wasn’t really pork, more like bacon bits. But seriously, in this day and age when YOU and I are having to watch OUR spending, do you really think it is appropriate for our elected officials to piss away OUR tax dollars on this:

$713,625 Woody Biomass at SUNY-ESF. Walsh and Schumer sponsors

$951,500 Sustainable Las Vegas. Berkeley and Reid sponsors.

$24,000 A+ for Abstinence. Specter is sponsor.

$300,000 Montana World Trade Center. Rehberg sponsor.

$950,000 Myrtle Beach International Trade and Convention Center. Graham sponsor.

$200,000 Oil Region Alliance. Peterson sponsor.

$190,000 Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY for digitizing and editing the Cody collection. Barbara Cubin is the sponsor

$143,000 Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Las Vegas, NV, to expand natural history education programs. Sponsored by Harry Reid

$238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Honolulu, HI, for educational programs. Sen. Daniel Inouye is the sponsor.

$381,000 for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, NY for music education programs. Jerrold Nadler is the sponsor.
Oh, and for those of you who might have missed it. Remember when candidate John McCain said that “The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Remember how the Obama campaign, every democratic pundit, and the media wrung their hands in outright indignation and said how out of touch he was. Remember that one?

On Sunday, Obama economic adviser Christina Romer was asked during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" if the fundamentals of the economy were sound. "Of course they are sound," she replied. "The fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology."

Wow, does it really sound better when a democrat says it? Just about every media talk head tried to verbally eviscerate McCain, claiming he was out of touch. So where is the outcry now?

So much for Hope and Change. As I predicated, you all fell for the smoke and mirrors and now your going to realize it’s all still just politics as usual.