Question of Timing on Bush’s Push on Earmarks

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/washington/29earmark.html?hp

Now that his friends have been kicked out of the bar, President Bush has decided it is time for last call.

While his Republican allies ran Congress for the first six years of his presidency, Mr. Bush showed no compunction about helping the Republicans who controlled Congress pour out federal money for members’ pet projects.

He signed spending bills containing more than 50,000 earmarks worth more than $100 billion to pay for pet projects like a new facade for some local landmark, a new lane for a local highway or a weapons deal for a contractor who just happened to contribute to an influential congressman.

Tucked into the endnotes of complex spending bills at the request of individual lawmakers with almost no oversight, such items have contributed to a mounting pileup of waste and corruption, recently sending the lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Representative Randy Cunningham, a California Republican, to jail.

Now, in his last year in the White House and with his party out of power on Capitol Hill, Mr. Bush declared in his State of the Union address Monday night that, “The people’s trust in their government is undermined by Congressional earmarks.”

[Fleshdancer]

1. That was my reaction too

The earmarks didn't bother him when the Republican Congress was helping him run up the largest debt in US history. :eyes:

[angrycarpenter]

2. Just like a conservative.

To cry poor when it is time to pay the bill.

[water]

3. It's ok if his party does something wrong, but Democrats should be called out for doing the same.