OBAMA LIES LIES LIES, TELLS US SWEET LITTLE LIES: EARMARKS

RIEHL:

Earmarks? How About Bribes?

Feingold speaks out on earmarks and Obama, leading The Hill to re-visit an old Obama quote. As if there were a point.

Do you think he'll pick up on the many bribes that amount to all but the same thing Reid used to get the votes for health care? [...]

"Absolutely, we need earmark reform," Obama said in his first presidential debate with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."

Obama also called for cutting earmarks down to their levels in 1994, when they took up less than $8 billion of the federal discretionary budget.

MORE FROM THE HILL: Obama falls short on pledge to curtail earmarks, fiscal hawks say< /a>

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said the White House and Democratic leaders use earmarks to "buy off" key votes to pass major legislation. DeMint and other earmark hawks have blasted deals by Senate leaders to give $300 million for disaster aid to Louisiana and $100 million in Medicaid funding to Nebraska in order to win the support of Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) on the landmark healthcare reform bill. Though those may not fit Congress's technical definition of earmarks, critics said they accomplish the same sordid goal.

"The overt vote-buying using earmarks is now out of control," DeMint said.

WANT IT STOPPED: VOTE GOP IN 2010.