Obama Uses Cheap Excuses to Approve $410 Billion in Spending

Every Obama statement has an expiration date:

WASHINGTON -- The White House on Sunday downplayed massive deficit spending and President Obama's pledge not to sign legislation laden with billions in earmarks amid Republican criticism that he was recanting on a key campaign promise.

The administration's top budget official, Peter Orszag, said Obama would sign the $410 billion spending bill despite a campaign pledge that he would reject tailored budget requests that let lawmakers send money to their home states. Orszag said Obama would move ahead and overlook the time-tested tradition that lets officials divert millions at a time to pet projects.

It was the Washington equivalent of officials pinching their nose and swallowing a bitter pill.

"This is last year's business," Orszag said, offering an acknowledgment that Obama would sign a bill that doesn't conform with his campaign vows. "We want to just move on. Let's get this bill done, get it into law and move forward."

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel offered mirrored language: "That's last year's business."

That's a cute excuse. I've heard more than one Dem claim that there's no problem with approving 9,000 earmarks because those were submitted when Bush was president. Let's think about that for a moment.

When Obama took office he couldn't wait to reverse one Bush policy after another. Abortion restrictions and other things that were inconvenient to the rookie president and the Dems were quickly shelved.

So, what stops Obama from eliminating these 9,000 earmarks? If they were submitted under Bush he's clearly not obligated to approve them now.

The fact is, he doesn't care about the spending and he doesn't want to pick a fight with Congress over all these pet projects. It's much easier to blame them on Bush and let them go through.

The quicker he can put us into insurmountable debt, the easier it will be to demand bigger and more expensive government programs.