Obama has Opened Pandora's Box

When Obama first handed the Stimuloid Porkgasm™ over to Nancy Pelosi to write and then signed it without debate, he lost control of the government. Whoever controls the purse strings controls the government and there is no longer any control over the purse.

First off, earmarks are in and in a huge way. Harry Reid got his maglev train from LA to Las Vegas for $8B. Second, the size of the thing has made future earmarks seem tiny by comparison. Chuck Schumer announced this when he stood up in front of the cameras and said, "No one cares about a little waste." Third, Obama signed a monster appropriations bill recently, hidden underneath all of the other wild spending sprees, that finances the government for the next 9 months. It's an 8% real growth in the size of the Federal government before all of the stimuloids and bailouts.

The list goes on and on, but here's the main point. There is always a balance of power between the president and congress. Each individual congresscreature fights for as much Federal spending as they can get for their districts. They are rewarded for bringing home the pork no matter what happens to the nation as a whole. The president is rewarded for the performance of the country as a whole and so he must keep some control over the wild spending in congress.

Barack has lost that control. They're all running wild now, writing in earmarks and spending sprees with no one to stop them. When Barack tried to get them to discuss the impending collapse of Social Security, they shut him down. He backed off.

Lastly, dig this.

Leading Democrats on Wednesday appeared to brush aside President Obama’s suggestion that they sacrifice earmarks in the federal budget, arguing Congress knows better than “faceless bureaucrats” how to spend taxpayer money.

The pushback came just hours after the president, during his address to a joint session of Congress, implored lawmakers to help put the nation back on a path to fiscal health.

Despite Obama’s request, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) on Wednesday stood by thousands of earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill, which the House passed Wednesday and is expected to be debated next by senators.

The spending demons have been released from captivity.

Now that he's opened the box, it will be quite a feat to get them all back in.