That Greasy, Pork Sandwich

Just a little heads-up what the latest budget bill, which President Obama said contains no earmarks, is sending home.

1,000-plus-page spending bill includes hundreds of pages of earmarks – pet spending projects inserted by lawmakers, ranging from:

$185,000 for coral reef research and preservation in Maui County, Hawaii;

$55,000 in meteorological equipment for Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Calif.;

$9.9 million for science enhancement at historically black colleges in South Carolina.

But wait! There’s more….

In addition to the basic operations of government, the new budget includes 775 pages of earmarks, funding programs that include local museums, colleges and infrastructure projects.

Among the earmarked projects in the bill are $764,000 for the Lake George Watershed Protection Initiative in New York, requested by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Democrat;

$9.9 million for South Carolina’s historically black colleges and universities, requested by House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, South Carolina Democrat;

$1.1 million requested by Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander and Sen. Bob Corker, both of Tennessee, for water treatment plant improvements in Tennessee’s Unicoi County, as well as $300,000 for a sewer extension project in another county;

Examples of Earmarks in the Omnibus

$713,625 Woody Biomass at SUNY-ESF. Walsh and Schumer sponsors;

$951,500 Sustainable Las Vegas. Berkeley and Reid sponsors;

$24,000 A+ for Abstinence. Specter is sponsor;

$300,000 Montana World Trade Center. Rehberg sponsor;

$950,000 Myrtle Beach International Trade and Convention Center. Graham sponsor;

$200,000 Oil Region Alliance. Peterson sponsor;

$190,000 Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY for digitizing and editing the Cody collection. Barbara Cubin is the sponsor;

$143,000 Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Las Vegas, NV, to expand natural history education programs. Sponsored by Harry Reid;

$238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Honolulu, HI, for educational programs. Sen. Daniel Inouye is the sponsor;

$381,000 for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, NY for music education programs. Jerrold Nadler is the sponsor;

Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, would spend $3.8 million on a Needles, Calif., highway;

Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the top Republican on Senate Appropriations, backs earmarks including a $950,000 nature education center in Moss Point, Miss. He defends earmarks.

Now while Rob Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget said, “The president has been clear, both during the campaign and since he’s been in office, that this budget just can’t be business as usual,” what else would you call this?

h/t Sher Z