Washington (CNN) - Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who oversees Senate spending bills as chairman of the appropriations committee, announced Tuesday a two-year moratorium on earmarks.
Despite his long support for such congressionally directed spending, Inouye acknowledged that with President Obama and the Republican-controlled House opposed to earmarks, it would be fruitless for the Senate to include them in its bills.
"The handwriting is clearly on the wall. The president has stated unequivocally that he will veto any legislation containing earmarks, and the House will not pass any bills that contain them. Given the reality before us, it makes not sense to accept earmark requests that have no chance of being enacted into law," Inouye said in a press release.
The announcement came days after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said during an NBC interview that the president is "absolutely wrong" about earmarks and "should back off" his opposition.
From CNN Politics
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Since a democrat proposed this legislation, I'm dying to see how Sen. Deminted and Sen. McCon vote on this. As far as Sen. Reid goes, he's just on the wrong side of this issue.
good.... no more yuka mountains.....
"Since a democrat proposed this legislation, I'm dying to see how Sen. Deminted and Sen. McCon vote on this. As far as Sen. Reid goes, he's just on the wrong side of this issue."
They're all busy trying to redefine earmark terminology thereby confusing their sheep enough to continue voting them in office, so that they themselves then can continue earmark funding to their pet projects in hope of keeping their lobbyists happy enough to fund their next election cycle.
I stand with Harry Reid. Both Obama and the Republicans are wrong on this issue. Its a senators job to reign in money for his state. Im from South Carolina where our senators oppose earmarks. If you look at our current state budget, education that keeps getting cut, and the need for major road construction, you can see we could benefit from a little pork barrel spending
Funny, what he should be doing is providing some tax dollar funding to try and find Barry's birth certificate. A handwritten note in the archives....seriously folks, a hand written note? I can see it now, at that passport office, yes I would like to see your hand written note from the archives to verify your Nation of birth...Mr. President.
Yeah right! Let's see how long the GOP or the Democrats can go without putting in a few earmarks to a bill.
Now the fun begins for the all talk republicans .
Well, good, a few dermocrats become more wise, it's great positive surprise for the good American people
If I ever hear another Republican talk about what's morally right, I'll just vomit. But have you noticed the Republicans fighting to repeal HC haven't talked about what's morally right. Americans need to listen closely to what these Republicans are telling us and if it doesn't ring in your ears "apartheid" I don't know what will.
I see the sunrise of reason starting to shine in Washington! Now you're going to see lobbyists having to get a real job (besides bribing members of Congress).
I do have to wonder where all the lobbying money will go – nature abhors a vacuum. My guess is that we'll see unprecedented boatloads of secret cash getting funnelled into PACs. Even now, no one spends their own campaign funds – they just allow the arm's distance PACs to do their dirty work for them.