It's Slowly Dawning on Obama
The President is slowly figuring out that most of the spending bill commonly referred to as the stimulus is waste.
Earlier in February, he was all over TV telling folks that only 1% of the stimulus was unnecessary pork. While he was wrong then, he has moved on.
Now at a meeting with the Governors of almost all of the states, he's upped the percentage:
Obama told the group this morning that there are "some very legitimate concerns" about the unemployment insurance provisions, but noted that they were only a small part, less than 10 percent, of the overall package.
We hope this signals a change, and that he will start to listen to the very legitimate concerns being expressed about the way the Democratic majority is wrecking the American economy.
Representative Mike Pence is calling our attention to the next burp of frenzied spending from the Congress:
The House is taking up this week the omnibus spending bill that will fund the federal government through the end of September, and Republicans are requesting that funding not increase from its 2008 level.
Pelosi has also called for fiscal responsibility in government spending, requesting last week that House committee chairmen conduct hearings to examine the budgets of federal agencies. However, Republicans are reacting to media reports that place the price tag of the bill at $410 billion, with thousands of earmarks -- from both Democrats and Republicans -- included in that total.
"After a spending spree that included the rest of the banking bailout, a massive stimulus bill, a call for a housing and mortgage bailout -- now the federal government is poised for the largest increase in discretionary spending since the Carter administration, with the exception of 9/11," Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) said this morning during a pen-and-pad session with reporters. "We think that is inconsistent with the times in which we live and the expectation of the American people."
