More power to President Obama

It's a little ironic, but Republicans are pressing for a measure which gives more power to this Democratic president, according to The Hill.

Even if the full Senate doesn't pass an earmark moratorium, a refusal by lawmakers to direct funding to their congressional districts will likely give more spending-priority power to the Obama administration and won't do much to chip away at the federal deficit.

But don't think earmarks are slipping away into the past.  No way!

...Savvy appropriators are likely to find ways to direct funding to their pet projects by either appealing to the administration or inserting carefully worded provisions into legislation that would likely result in money being steered toward their interests.

The whole thing is a puppet show, at best.

In terms of actually cutting into the nearly $1.4 trillion federal deficit, an earmark ban is largely symbolic but is serving to deliver the deficit-reducing, spending-cut message that was central to most campaigns.  Earmarks don't add money to the annual federal budget, they simply direct money from the pot that is already being spent.

Given the urgency we feel -- or should be feeling -- about our debt problem, it's amazing we'd spend time on banning earmarks rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.  Could it be another deliberate time-waster on the part of Republicans who don't want anything done during the remainder of the lame duck session?

Count on the notorious Alan Simpson who makes the final eructation.

Former Sen. Alan Simpson (Wyo.), the Republican co-chairman of the White House fiscal commission, has dismissed a new moratorium on earmarks as no more consequential than a “sparrow belch.”