Primer on Obama, earmarks, omnibus

From NBC's Mark Murray With the omnibus coming to a Senate vote as early as tomorrow, here are some points and figures to keep in mind: -- The FY'09 omnibus appropriations bill contains 8,570 known earmarks totaling $7.7 billion. That amount represents less than 2% of the $410 billion legislation. ( Taxpayers for Common Sense ) -- The total amount in earmarks for FY’09 is $500 million less than it was in FY’08 "When you add the $6.6 billion in disclosed earmarks that were in the three FY09 spending bills that passed in the fall (Defense, DHS, MilCon/VA) you end up with $14.3 billion worth of disclosed earmarks in FY09. The apples-to-apples comparison from 2008 yielded $14.8 billion, so there was a $500 million reduction in disclosed earmarks between FY08 and FY09." ( Taxpayers for Common Sense ) -- During the campaign, Obama promised to reform the earmarks process -- “go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely” -- but he never said he’d eliminate earmarks  ... (link)