Senators urging President Obama to Veto the Omnibus Spending Bill to Hit His Desk Soon

Very shortly, a $410 billion spending bill will cross the desk of President Obama. The legislation has $7.7 billion in earmarks, which are unrelated pet projects that members of Congress insert in spending  bills. Critics, including McCain, have said the excessive spending in the bill would be contrary to the president's recent pledge to cut unnecessary government spending and pork-laden earmarks. Just recently, Senator John McCain, who openly opposes earmarks, offered an amendment to the spending bill Tuesday that would have frozen spending at 2008 levels through the 2009 fiscal year, which ends September 30th. McCain's amendment failed to pass Tuesday which means the spending bill made up of about 1 percent earmarks will now go to a vote. A few of the Democratic Senators openly oppose these earmarks and are urging President Obama to veto the bill if it makes it to his desk with the earmarks.
 In the past, most of the Senators that you hear about today that just happen to be in Obama's Cabinet have supported earmarks, and have personally requested money for a particular pet project.Vice President Joe Biden requested $750,000 for a University of Delaware program during his time as a senator from that state. Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who was a Democratic congressman from Illinois, requested $900,000 for a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. Even Obama himself supported some earmarks when he was senator from Illinois.
The fact that earmarks do exist is not really a bad thing, but Senator John McCain has been a staunch critic of pork barrel projects included in earmarks, and has campaigned against it, just as President Obama has during his campaign. The question here will be, 'Will President Obama break one of his campaign promises and support and sign a bill that contains earmarks?' Personally, I'm hoping that he does veto the bill, as he needs to let some members in Congress really know who he is and he would gain allot more bipartisan respect. If President Obama wants to cut deficit spending, then I suggest that he start with the $7.7 billion in earmarks set to become law when the bill hits his desk. Prior to this, you can add the $6.6 billion in disclosed earmarks that in the three fiscal 2009 year spending bills that passed in the fall, so the total amount of earmarks for 2009 will now total $14.3 billion. That in itself is a cut from the 2008 fiscal year spending which amounted to $14.8 billion.
Most people think that President Obama is always racing against time. In most cases he is, as just about every major bill to cross a Presidents desk these days are about funds that are needed now, not next month. In this case, without the spending bill, the government will run out of money it needs to run the government by the end of the fiscal year which is  September of 2009.
The House has already voted in favor of it, but the Senate still has yet to vote. The vote in the House was as expected, following party lines, as Democrats favored the bill and Republicans did not favor it.
It appears that President Obama will also gain another title as the Deficit Spending President. One thing is for sure. History will never be able to forget President Obama, and hopefully it will be for the right reasons.
The video below highlights the reasons why President Obama may sign the bill.