Posted on 03/11/2009 1:08:20 PM PDT by 2nd amendment mama
The $410 billion omnibus appropriation bill passed the Senate last night on a voice vote having reached cloture -- dashing a Republican-led filibuster -- mere minutes before by a vote of 62-35. Three Democrats voted against cloture and in favor of fiscal responsibility, and six Republicans voted for cloture. Had this monster bill not passed, Congress was poised to pass a continuing resolution funding the government through September but holding the 2009 budget at current spending levels while stripping out all earmarks.
At least five of the eight Republicans sold out for the price of their own personal pork pet projects scattered throughout the over 9,000 earmarks in the bill, crossing over to vote with Democrats in favor of driving yet another stake through the heart of the nation’s economy by endorsing the majority’s out-of-control spending.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) voted for the bill and his 64 earmarks worth $114 million. Shelby's earmarks range from $800,000 for oyster rehabilitation at the University of South Alabama to $380,000 to the city of Tarrant, Ala., for streetscaping and walkways. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) had 65 earmarks worth $76 million. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has zero earmarks yet also voted for the bill. Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) voted for the bill and his $86 million in earmarks; Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted for her $74 million in earmarks; and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) voted for the bill and his $25 million in earmarks.
Calls and emails to Shelby’s office for comment on his earmark spending spree -- the highest monetary amount by any Republican this go around -- went unreturned.
This massive spending bill is the largest increase in regular discretionary spending since Democrat President Jimmy Carter’s disastrous tax and spend economic policies engineered a horrifying economic hat trick: double digit inflation, double digit unemployment and double digit interest rates. But Carter was a panty-waist compared to President Barack Obama, who after a mere 51 days in office is already well on his way to producing the same disastrous economic outcome it took Carter two years to accomplish.
In earlier floor action in the Senate, the Democrat majority defeated an amendment offered by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) which barred the FCC from allocating funding to the effort by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to back door the so-called “fairness” doctrine, now known on the Hill as the Durbin Doctrine. Democrats also voted to table an amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that would have re-authorized the E-Verify system that offers employers the means to verify a worker’s citizenship status. As it stands now, illegal aliens are not barred from those jobs Obama keeps telling you are going to materialize. Also tabled was the David Vitter (R-La.) amendment that would have struck down the automatic cost of living pay raises Congress receives.
After the Senate vote, House Republican leader John Boehner renewed calls for the President to veto the omnibus spending bill. “President Obama should veto this bill, and if he does, Republicans stand ready to work with him to uphold his veto and pass a more responsible bill,” Boehner said. “A recession is not an excuse for politicians to spend taxpayers’ hard-earned money with reckless abandon. By vetoing this bill, the President can send a powerful message that he intends to keep his promise to fight for spending discipline and fiscal transparency at a time when such things have never mattered more to American families.”
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), along with his diligent staff, has helped lead the charge in bringing to light the pork-laden earmarks in this bill. “Americans are suffering in this economy, but Washington appears to be recession-proof, with billions wasted on politicians' pet projects,” DeMint said after the bill’s passage. “Last year, as a U.S. senator, President Obama cosponsored my legislation banning all earmarks for this year’s spending bills. But we’re on track to have the second most earmarks in history, and only President Obama can stop this waste. I urge President Obama to keep his pledge and single-handedly stop more than 9,000 wasteful earmarks by promising to veto this omnibus bill.”
“The 9,287 earmarks in the omnibus include tax dollars for tattoo removal, swine odor, midnight basketball, museums, bike paths, a “Totally Teen Zone,” and the controversial liberal advocacy group LaRaza,” DeMint continued. “Combined with the spending bills already passed last year, it will drive up the number of earmarks in Fiscal Year 2009 to a total of 11,914 at a cost of $28.9 billion.”
The six Republicans who voted to invoke cloture which ended debate on the omnibus bill, thus ending the filibuster, were as follows: Alexander (Tenn.), Bond (Mo.), Cochran (Miss.), Murkowski (Alaska), Shelby (Ala.), Snowe (Maine), Specter (Pa.), and Wicker (Miss.) (see the complete roll call).
Connie Hair is a freelance writer, a former speechwriter for Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and a former media and coalitions advisor to the Senate Republican Conference.
bttt
“Earmarxists” - that’s a good one.
A pox on them all.
Looks like we’re on our own. No help from the political whores in DC.
BTW.. anyone know if the famous “Muslim” representative took any “PORK” ??
Shelby and Bond? ****!
Ms ping
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) had 65 earmarks worth $76 million
The six Republicans who voted to invoke cloture which ended debate on the omnibus bill, thus ending the filibuster, were as follows: and Wicker (Miss.)
Kick out the RINOs in 2010.
Snowe and Spector were givens - we all expected nothing less from them.
The rest are simply living up to the new GOP’s comittment to uselessness.
I’m beginning to hope that they become extinct.
I just sent Kit Bond (who I’ve “known” for 25 years) an email.
“I am angry to see you chose pork over principle...I am embarrassed to be a Missouri Republican.”
Claire McCaskill, the Democrat Senator from Missouri, voted AGAINST the bill. Bond votes FOR it.
“Republicans wonder why they are in the minority?” 2010 cannot come fast enough.”
Congress has the power of the purse but their power to spend can only be checked by POTUS. Bush wouldn’t do it so I don’t know how anyone can complain that Obama won’t.
Shelby sucks
Everybody has his/her price.
What an incredible shame.
And they voted for worthless paper money ("scuse me, Debt of the powerless American people).
The bankruptcy of this nation amd maybe the whole world is on target.
Those of us who complained about spending under Bush have every right to be appalled at the level of spending going on under Obama.
When it soon comes pitchfork and torch time, we don’t need to be after just one party.
Miss Wicker? Makes sense to me.
LOL. The others at least sold out their principles. She just gives hers away.
Who a guessed?
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear."
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Cicero spoke of traitors to the nation - but the same thoughts are applicable to traitors to a party or an ideology. Frankly, Snow and Specter are hard-core traitors, having repeatedly stabbed the rest of the Party in the back. They should be denied ALL funding by the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. The other 4 need to be taken out to the woodshed.
DAMN, YOU IDIOTS! HOW CAN OBAMA BE DERAILED IF YOU SELL OUT FOR A FEW MILLION IN BRIBES TO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS OR FRIENDS????
And rehab for oysters...? I assume it meant Blue Oyster Cult - the defunct rock band.
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