can you help me with something? ‎I can't find the real figures >>>

[goodboy]

can you help me with something? ‎I can't find the real figures >>>

‎"President Obama pledged to reduce earmark spending down to the 1994 level of $7.8 billion (in nominal dollars). Instead, he signed $16.5 billion of appropriations earmarks into law last year."

Of course it comes

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2010

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Here's an article that talks about the reduction made in 2009.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/mar/11/peter-orszag/earmarks-down-not-75-percent/


They count more than 8,500 disclosed earmarks in the omnibus bill, coming to $7.7 billion. Together with $6.6 billion in disclosed earmarks in the three 2009 spending bills that passed in the fall, earmarks for the year come to $14.3 billion, which is $500 million less than earmarks last year, they note. Less, but not a whole lot less in the big picture.

The total amount of last year's earmarks represented a 23 percent reduction from the high water mark in 2005, according to TCS. The slight reduction this year would add a couple percentage points to that. But in no way does it come anywhere near the reduction of 75 or 80 percent that Orszag and Schumer cited.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. Earmarks are a tiny pctg of the budget, and, w/o a line-item veto,

the only power a President has over them is the ability to veto entire big chunks of bedget legislation. With the Rs filibustering 70 percent of legislation in the Senate, it would have been foolhardy for Obama to have vetoed ANYTHING since he took power. Even before the filibustering began, earmarks were the focus only of grandstanders like John McCain.

That said, you might find links to original studies of earmarks at http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/431/reduce-earmarks-to-1994-levels/ .

[Winterblues]

3. Ear Marks are not necessarily a bad thing

They are a major way states get Federal Dollars..It isn't as if they went directly into the politician's pocket..I would much rather we cut thirty billion in defense Spending and let Congress have sixteen Billion in "Ear Marks" / Pork...