Weekly Wrap-Up

Another week, yet another round of Washington spending sprees...

Here’s the big story Shaun Marie has been blogging about this week: On Wednesday, President Barack Obama quietly signed a $410 billion spending bill filled with more than 8,000 earmarks – which, of course, the President campaigned against in 2008.

“Promises, Promises,” says the headline from this New York Post editorial, which notes: “Between the stimulus and the budget, he's shown neither the ability nor the inclination to control spending.”

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03122009/postopinion/editorials/promises__promises_159195.htm

These earmarks include everything from a “catfish genome” project and “oyster rehabilitation” to a $5.8 million gift to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate in Boston. Paying tribute to Ted Kennedy... your tax dollars at work.

The Heritage Foundation has the full list of the earmarks that President Obama just approved...

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/upload/porktable.html

Keep in mind, this latest spending bill is just a tiny sliver of the Big Government splurge the liberals are planning.

Sen. Judd Gregg – who was chosen to serve as the Obama Administration’s Commerce Secretary but reportedly couldn’t accept some of the President’s more radical policies – has a good overview of the Obama budget.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/12/old-image-of-cost-cutting-is-out/

And speaking of that “stimulus” bill... this week the media finally started reporting how that spending will directly benefit illegal aliens.

This USA Today article opens with the claim that, “Tens of thousands of jobs created by the economic stimulus law could end up filled by illegal immigrants.” But keep reading, and you’ll discover that the real number of jobs expected to go to illegal aliens is not “tens of thousands,” but more like 300,000.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2009-03-08-immigrant-jobs_N.htm

This sounds like good news here in New York: Gov. Paterson has dropped some of the worst taxes he’s proposed, including the notorious “fat tax” on sodas.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/politics/ny-popate126066153mar12,0,2869909.story

The Conservative Party helped mobilize taxpayers against these ridiculous taxes – and we can all be glad that the liberals in Albany got the message.

But... don’t get too excited. The Governor is replacing these taxes with money from the stimulus bill... so all of us will be paying the price with our tax dollars, one way or another. And all that stimulus spending will inevitably make all of our taxes go up.

Taxpayers can’t win... but at least for now we can have a Coke in peace...

Have a good weekend!