President Barack Obama missed a golden opportunity to send a message to Congress about doing business as usual when the business environment is anything but usual. He should have vetoed the spending bill. The measure was packed with 8,500 special interest projects, called earmarks, totaling roughly $8 billion.
The president’s failure to prune these political plums early in his administration belies his promise to hold Congress accountable for wasting public money. Mr. Obama should not make the same mistake as President Bush, acquiescing to compatriots in the legislative branch and saving his veto pen for when the opposing party comes to power. The next time Congress sends the president a waste-filled bill, he should just say “no.”
Agreed!
Spending projects should get the same scrutiny as anything else and not be slipped in as irrelevant pork attached to legislation.
The President should have line-item veto power to prune the budget.
Very dissapointing that this has not been dealt with. Today in fact I recieved a video email from the Obama team urging me to help get the budget passed. Negative.
