In reporting that “Republicans in Congress have called on [President] Obama to veto a pending $410 billion spending bill because it includes more than 8,000 earmarks,” the Associated Press did not note that 40 percent of the earmarks in the bill were reportedly requested by congressional Republicans, or that an analysis by independent budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense reportedly found that six Republican senators are among the top 10 sponsors of earmarks in the bill. The March 4 AP article also ignored the fact that nine Republicans, including seven who sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee, voted against an amendment by Sen. John McCain that would have stripped earmarks out of the bill.

As Media Matters for America documented, on February 26, the AP similarly reported that “Republicans assailed” the omnibus bill as “too costly” and quoted Republicans criticizing the bill for containing earmarks, without noting that many of the earmarks were included at the request of Republicans.

From the March 4 AP article:

Asked whether Obama wanted line-item veto power, [White House press secretary Robert] Gibbs said the president -- who on Wednesday announced changes in the awarding of government contracts he said would save billions of dollars -- wants to work with Congress to reduce wasteful spending.

“That's the best way to go out and do this, to continue to look for the inefficiencies and the waste, to follow prescribed solutions for this, that in many cases have been identified and just simply not acted on,” Gibbs said at his daily news briefing.

Republicans in Congress have called on Obama to veto a pending $410 billion spending bill because it includes more than 8,000 earmarks, or spending targeted for specific projects in lawmakers' districts, totaling billions of dollars. The bill is necessary to keep the government operating through the end of its budget year on Sept. 30.

The White House has indicated that Obama will sign the bill.