Just before Christmas, Congress sent the President a $516 billion omnibus spending bill stuffed with 8,993 special-interest earmarks. To make matters worse, most of the earmarks aren't even in the language of the law itself. They were slipped into a 900-page "committee report" that represented the “wish lists” of the Senate and House appropriations committees. Almost no one got a chance to even READ that report before the budget was passed… late at night… and with barely a day for members to review it.
The House and Senate did not vote on the earmarks. Yet, Congress maintains that the earmarks are legally binding. This violates the process for passing legislation in the Constitution of the United States. In fact, the vast majority of the offending earmarks -- the ones that aren't part of the actual budget law and were instead "air-dropped" into the committee report -- are NOT legally binding. A Dec. 18 legal analysis by the Congressional Research Service found that most of the committee reports have not been formally passed by both houses and "presented" to the President for signing, and thus have not become law. "President Bush could ignore the 90% of earmarks that never make it to the floor of the House or Senate for a vote," says Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who has read the CRS report. "He doesn't need a line-item veto."
THAT is what President Bush needs to do -- UPHOLD the U.S. Constitution, and issue an Executive Order telling government agencies to ignore these pork-barrel earmarks. But he’s making that decision tomorrow -- so we need to act TODAY!
Members of the House and Senate are calling the White House privately, complaining that such a move would “threaten its relations” with the legislative branch and threatening “retribution.” In other words, they’re demanding that the President ignore the Constitution for their petty -- but expensive -- demands on the taxpayers.
He needs to hear from US -- the grassroots in America -- to counter these greedy politicians. Click below NOW to send a FREE message to President Bush, asking him to uphold the Constitution, and issue an Executive Order against “pork barrel” earmarks:
RightMarch.com - Patriotism In Action.
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