Politics: "Democrats Boost Spending Atop Stimulus"

clipped from www.cbn.com

Democrats Boost Spending Atop Stimulus

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group, counted 8,570 pet projects totaling $7.7 billion inserted into the bill by lawmakers. The so-called earmarks include $22 million for an addition for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, dozens of grants to states and counties to battle methamphetamine, and a new $250,000 siren for St. Paul, Minn., to warn residents of tornadoes and other emergencies.

House Republican leaders attacked the bill as excessive, especially on the heels of the giant stimulus package, which provided $311 billion to many of the same agencies. Nonetheless, the measure is expected to sail through Congress in time to meet a March 6 deadline. That's when a temporary funding measure expires.

Congress also awarded itself a 10 percent increase in its own budget, bringing it to $4.4 billion.

the White House is projecting this year's budget shortfall to be $1.5 trillion, compared with a previous record $455 billion in 2008.

"The bill also contains a host of provisions aimed at reversing Bush-era policies, including... shutting down a controversial program that allows some Mexican trucking companies to operate freely throughout the United States, instead of only along the U.S.-Mexico border."

I'm in total support of that part. Some of what he is planning is good but much is being frivolous. Many of these programs are good but we are in pretty dire circumstances right now economically & just do not have the money for many of these.