news Obama aide says time to pass spending bill, move on

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Obama aide says time to pass spending bill, move on


23 minutes ago





WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's budget director said on Sunday a $411 billion federal spending bill backed by the White House is "uglier than we'd like" but should be enacted so Congress and the White House can tackle other problems.
Peter Orszag said the measure, packed with thousands of pet projects, was negotiated by members of Congress last year before Obama, a Democrat, replaced Republican George W. Bush as president in January -- and that it was time for Congress to pass it.
The bill would fund federal government operations through the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30. About 2 percent of the $410 billion is in earmarks.
"So we face a basic question: Is it uglier than we'd like? Yes. But again, this was negotiated last year. We think we should just move on," Orszag told CNN's "State of the Union" program.
The funding for so-called earmarks -- allocations for specific projects -- was put in by Democrats and Republicans.
Among those pet projects seen by critics as the most offensive include ones to research pig odor, build a rodeo museum in South Dakota and construct wolf breeding facilities in North Carolina and the state of Washington.
"Let's get this (budget) done, (and) move on to the business of attacking the problems that the economy faces and investing in education and health care and energy," Orszag said.
Senator John McCain, who ran against Obama in last year's presidential election, helped lead a Republican charge last week that blocked the budget bill in the Senate, at least temporarily.
But McCain, a longtime crusader against earmarks, said he expected backers of the measure to muster the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to clear a procedural hurdle and pass it this week.
"I think it probably will ... but I think we fought a good fight," McCain told "Fox News Sunday."
Obama vowed to combat earmark abuse while campaigning for president last year, saying he would go line-by-line in budgets to make sure the money is spent wisely.
But the president rejected Republican calls to veto this spending bill or push to have earmarks stripped out.
Democrats have accused Republicans of hypocrisy, noting that the overall the number of earmarks have been cut by more than half since Democrats won control of Congress from Republicans in 2006.