For Immediate Release                                      Contact: Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 February 25, 2009CAGW Says "Good Luck" to President on Waste-Cutting Agenda(Washington, D.C.) - The nation's premier taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today reacted with skepticism to President Obama's non-State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.  It was full of promises and short on specifics.  He spoke about halving the deficit before the end of his first term and cutting wasteful spending, claiming his administration had identified $2 trillion in savings over the next ten years.
"It is remarkable to see the power of the presidency used to paper over the most expensive 'stimulus' spending bill in the nation's history and an omnibus appropriations bill filled with thousands of earmarks that also increased spending by 8 percent over last year," said CAGW President Tom Schatz. "President Obama did one of the best jobs of talking out of both sides of his mouth that the nation has ever seen."
Today, the House of Representatives will take up the $410 billion fiscal year (FY) 2009 omnibus appropriations bill that combines nine of the 12 annual spending bills.  While the overall increase is 8 percent, or $32 billion above FY 2008, when combined with the spending in the stimulus bill signed into law last week, spending on agencies funded in both bills is $680 billion, or $301 billion greater than in FY 2008, an 80 percent increase for those agencies.
Although the total amount of earmarks in the bill will be less than the $17.2 billion included in all 12 FY 2008 appropriations bills, there are still thousands of unaccountable earmarks worth billions of dollars in the omnibus.  Congress could have helped President Obama make good on his promises to cut earmarks.  Instead, the appropriations committees decided that it was imperative to spend $4.5 million on wood utilization research and $2.9 million on shrimp aquaculture research, bringing total spending on those programs since 1985 to $95.3 million and $71 million respectively.  Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who said of the President's speech that "we know that if we make some sacrifices and the right investments we can move our state and country forward," apparently believes that by spending $1.8 million on three YMCAs in her state she can fulfill that vision.  She managed to abscond with 42 percent of the $4.2 million in spending on nine YMCAs in the FY 2009 omnibus bill.
"If the President is serious about getting wasteful spending under control, he should tell congressional leaders to slice the bacon out of the omnibus and freeze spending at FY 2008 levels.  The increased levels of funding will form the baseline for future appropriations bills.  It is highly unlikely that once spending on a program is doubled or tripled, Congress will cut it back to FY 2008 levels in future years," Schatz added.
"CAGW will work with President Obama and anyone else that wants to cut waste, fraud and abuse.  But it is simply not credible to promise to cut the deficit in half while Congress and this administration are spending money faster than at any time in history.  The combined total of the stimulus and the omnibus will be $1.197 trillion, without adding interest on the debt.  Congress has been in session for 30 days, meaning members have agreed to spend $40 billion per day," Schatz concluded.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.