Hannity repeats earmark falsehood to smear Obama
SUMMARY: Sean Hannity and Karl Rove falsely claimed that President Obama made a campaign promise of "no earmarks." In fact, Obama actually promised to reform the earmark process and cut wasteful spending, not to end all earmarks.
On the July 1 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity again falsely claimed that Obama made a campaign promise of "no earmarks." Fox News contributor Karl Rove responded: "And, again, he broke that one." In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, during his presidential campaign, Obama actually promised to reform the earmark process and cut wasteful spending, not to end all earmarks.
Hannity has repeatedly made the false claim that Obama promised to ban all earmarks. On March 6, for instance, Hannity aired a clip of Obama stating, "We are going to ban all earmarks, the process by which individual members insert pet projects without review." However, in those comments, which were taken from a January 6 media availability -- not during the presidential campaign, as Hannity suggested -- Obama was actually referring to his desire to "ban all earmarks" from his "recovery and reinvestment plan," which he specifically distinguished from "the overall budget process."
Numerous other media figures have also misrepresented Obama's statements regarding earmarks to accuse Obama of breaking a promise.
From the July 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity:
ROVE: How many times have we in the, like, last couple of months, have we seen him break these solemn promises that he made in the campaign? Now some of the promises I'm glad he broke. You know, I'm -- you know, his thing about "I'm not going to hold terrorists indefinitely in Gitmo."
Well, he broke that just literally last Friday by having an executive order that said he would hold them indefinitely. But we're going to see on a whole wide range of fronts that he's going to break his promises. Remember, he had --
HANNITY: All right. But let's go through this. He said he wouldn't --
ROVE: Yeah.
HANNITY: He said he wouldn't Mirandize. He's doing it. The one you just mentioned.
ROVE: Doing it.
HANNITY: He said no lobbyists in my administration. He broke that early.
ROVE: Lobbyists in the administration.
HANNITY: He said no earmarks, right? That was another one of his.
ROVE: And, again, he broke that one.
HANNITY: All right. So, well, these seem like major promises. What does that tell us about him? Is he dishonest?
ROVE: Well, look, he's a cold, calculating, ambitious politician who feels very comfortable saying one thing in the campaign and doing something entirely different. Whatever was necessary in order to get elected he was willing to say it.
-- L.Y.
HANNITY: All right. So, well, these seem like major promises. What does that tell us about him? Is he dishonest?
ROVE: Well, look, he's a cold, calculating, ambitious politician who feels very comfortable saying one thing in the campaign and doing something entirely different. Whatever was necessary in order to get elected he was willing to say it.
What's wrong with pork and earmarks?
The $400+ Billion Ominbus Bill put forth by Obama had over 8,000 earmarks.
Uh yeah. Obama broke his promise.
Obama never said that any of his budgets wouldn't have earmarks, and the stimulus bill was free of them. The Omnibus signed for by Obama was not HIS, nor was it "put forth" by him.
You are going off the deep end again. Show me where I lied.
Regarding the Ominbus, it does not matter if the bill was designed before he was inaugurated. Both Obama and the Democrats could have changed anything they wanted. You see it wasn't voted on until he offered it and he signed it. You have to drink a whole lot of kool aid to believe the bill was not his.
While I don't believe you are lying. I do think you accept at face value pronouncements by the Democrats that when examined, show the reality to be something completely different than what they say.
Regarding the stimulus bill, "While this bill does not include traditional earmarks, we should all understand that there are earmarks in this bill," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. "There is $850 million ... to bail out Amtrak, a $75 million earmark for the Smithsonian, a $1 billion earmark for the 2010 census."
The package includes an insurance exemption — but only for companies that work on recreational boats longer than 65 feet.
No doubt the yacht repair yards in Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s district in South Florida would benefit from the insurance exemption for work on boats longer than 65 feet.
Another provision would lift a Medicare regulation affecting only three long-term care hospitals in the country.
The amendment was inserted by Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., in the House Ways and Means Committee. The three hospitals that would benefit are in or near the districts of Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., who sit on the Ways and Means Committee. The president of the Connecticut hospital is also president of the National Association of Long Term Hospitals, which has lobbied for the change.
Clever drafting could give Democrats enough cover to say they met the president’s goal, said Keith Ashdown of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.
“I think it’s been watered down enough that it gives the administration deniability that they can meet that pledge,” said Ashdown, whose group advocates for better disclosure of congressional earmarks. “They can say there are no earmarks in this legislation, but when you look at the details of each provision, the reality becomes murkier.”
The Senate stimulus contains $50 million for habitat restoration and other water needs in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is another $62 million for military projects in Guam.
The House bill includes an amendment authored by Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley setting aside $500 million for biofuel makers, which he says, would bring jobs home to Iowa.
There’s $198 million to compensate Filipino World War II veterans for their service. Most don’t live in the United States.
Two House Democrats with a hunger for transit money — Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York and Ed Perlmutter of Colorado — helped secure the extra $3 billion, pushing total transit funding in the House bill to $12 billion. Nadler touted it as a boon for commuters that would help New York City’s financially strapped subway system jumpstart work on a huge backlog of projects.
So if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is an earmark. To deny it on your part is simply laughable.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29025047/page/2/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29025047/
$475,000 to build a parking garage in Provo City, Utah
$200,000 for a tattoo removal violence outreach program that could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past
$300,000 for the Montana World Trade Center
1 million for mormon cricket control in Utah
$650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi
$2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York
$332,000 for the design and construction of a school sidewalk in Franklin, Texas
$2 million “for the promotion of astronomy” in Hawaii
$1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa
http://www.examiner.com/x-2759-Business-and-Finance-Examiner~y2009m2d28-Top-10-wasteful-earmarks-on-stimulus-bill
$694 billion total cost of the Iraq war/occupation.
$315 million for the "bridge to nowhere".
Wow. This is fun.
It wasn't his bill. It wasn't his budget. It was Bush's budget. It wasn't "put forth" by Obama using ANY definition of those words.
It was a lie by you.
Now I have shown you twice where the lie is.
Not so long ago -- before President Obama's inauguration -- "earmarks" referred to the special appropriations that bypass the normal budget process to cater to special interests and protect the incumbents who inserted them. The difference now is that the politicians have gotten much better at disguising their handiwork. Under the cover of emergency spending, the projects have also grown.
To say there are no earmarks in the stimulus plan is simply laughable.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123621360683535103.html
See What's an earmark?
Not only does Sheer "Hot Air" InSannity robotically repeat his talking points like a drunk in a bar, so many of them are flat out lies!