L.A. Times Manages to Portray McConnell as Following Obama’s Lead on Earmarks
It’s quite a sleight of hand, to be sure. But for a paper that shills for Democrats on a daily basis, turning reality upside down is second nature:
In a surprise shift, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday he would support a proposal put forward by conservative Republicans to ban so-called earmark spending in the new Congress.
. . . .
. . . President Obama used his weekly address this weekend to support an earmark ban as well. He also issued a statement Monday afternoon praising McConnell’s “decision to join me and members of both parties who support cracking down on wasteful earmark spending.”
Join President Obama in fighting earmarks! He has fought them ever since, well, never. This is a guy who sought millions and millions in earmarks when he was a Senator — including, famously, “a request for $1 million in federal funding in 2006 for a new pavilion at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where his wife, Michelle Obama, was a vice president at the time.”
Oddly enough, “Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office.” Almost as if the administrators had an inkling that having her there might help them cash in!
It didn’t work, by the way, despite Barry’s best efforts. The earmark didn’t go through, and her salary was promptly reduced back to $273,618. And that, I suppose, must be when he suddenly decided he hated earmarks? If my wife can’t cash in, then screw everything.
This story somehow doesn’t make it into the L.A. Times article. Which then goes on to quote Obama as follows:
“I look forward to working with Democrats and Republicans to not only end earmark spending, but to find other ways to bring down our deficits for our children,” he said.
I have an idea for how to bring down our deficits, Mr. President. Stop spending money like it’s going out of style. Stop passing stimulus packages costing hundreds of billions of dollars that aren’t needed. Stop passing huge socialist reforms that cost a mint.
None of which is mentioned in the article either.
Oh, and just one last thing: senior White House advisor David Axelrod said on Sunday morning that Obama probably has no choice but to sign a slew of earmarks into law. Because, you know, “one of the problems is that these things come embedded in bills that have to be signed.” “Have” to be signed, he said.
That didn’t make it in the article either! Wow.
The message: a reluctant Mitch McConnell is dragged kicking and screaming into opposing earmarks by a principled Barack Obama: reformer, and deficit foe.
Makes you want to re-subscribe, doesn’t it? So you can get a fresh point of view like this every day.