'NO EARMARKS' in the Proposed Economic Stimulus Package

In an report by CNN about the Economic Stimulus Plan by Barack Obama, it looks like the future president is taking out all stops in an attempt to protect the extraordinary amount of money that will be used to jump-start the economy. It will be used to save millions of jobs. Since the figures for this plan will be extremely high, President-Elect Barack Obama wants to bring a sense of accountability and responsibility in the form of 'no earmarks'to be attached to the bill.
All during the presidential campaign, that "no earmarks" was one of the battle cries of John McCain. So now that Barack Obama is mentioning it, what exactly are earmarks? In a nutshell, they are projects that members of the Congress inserts in money bills that will be funded without review, by the monies of the economic recovery plan. In this case, President-Elect Obama states that this money will not be used for the Congress members purposes other then for what is is supposed to be used for. He says that Americans would only support his plan unless we take "extraordinary steps to ensure that the investments are made wisely and managed well."He is not going to take any chances here. The plan must pass for him to get the economy rolling once again. As many as 3 million people may get the chance to go back to work. The details of the stimulus package will be posted online very soon, and he plans to talk about it more in an economic address on Thursday. Even with the plan, the Federal Reserve states that the deteriorating economy will continue to spiral downward along with higher employment throughout this year into 2010. Right now, it's just a plan, but if implemented, he will need the means to make sure that we are getting our moneys worth out of it. So he is going to set up an oversight board "to identify problems early and make sure we're doing all that we can to solve it." Reform must also be front and center to the overall budget process, to monitor and address deficit of dollars and deficit of trust. It will be no easy picnic as he claims " We'll have to make tough choices, and we're going to have to break old habits. We're going to have to eliminate outmodeled programs and make the ones that we do need work better."
The final cost could reach $1 trillion dollars, and will be one of the largest ever in U.S. history. The national debt is very high now, and this bill would increase it by 500 billion overnight.
Since it entails so much money, Republicans say that Americans need to see for themselves that the money is well spent. The lawmakers must decide if the bill is tangible and good for the economy, and if they deem that it is, they need to convince the American people who will fund it.
Again, the economic address will be delivered on Thursday by Barack Obama, and you can return here to view the video and read the transcripts if you like.