President Bush used yesterday’s press conference to respond to the nearly 10,000 earmarks in the Omnibus. According to this report in the Washington Examiner:
“Bush used a year-end news conference to scold lawmakers for stuffing 9,800 special-interest projects into a $550 billion spending measure. He directed his budget director to explore how to erase what Bush considers wasteful spending.”
And, from The Washington Post:
Bush said he asked Jim Nussle, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to draft possible actions to take, but he would not elaborate. One option, aides said, would be to ignore the vast majority of earmarks that are included only in conference reports rather than in the appropriations bill itself. Although traditionally honored, language in such reports is not legally binding.
“There’s always been an opportunity for the president to issue an executive order essentially canceling most of the earmarks,” said Brian M. Riedl, a Heritage Foundation scholar who issued a memo outlining ways to do so. “Generally, it’s been perceived as a declaration of nuclear war for the president not to spend congressional earmarks. But with more than 11,000 of them, it seems like the president might consider it time.”
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Support Grows for Anti-Earmark Executive Order « Omnibusting: Omnibus Spending Bill, Earmarks, Pork and Budget Gimmicks // December 27, 2007 at 12:58 pm
[...] 27, 2007 · No Comments President Bush’s suggestion that he would explore ways to stop wasteful earmarks in the $555-billion omnibus spending bill has been meet with praise from conservatives. [...]
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