what ever happened to "the first 100 hours" and the dems promise to reform congress back in '06? it baffles me why people are buying obama's "change" message.

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A bill recently passed by the House increases the number of Defense Authorization earmarks by more than 20% from last year, according to a new analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), a national budget watchdog organization.
The House and Senate Defense Authorization bills are two of the first pieces of legislation to disclose earmarks for Fiscal Year 2009. This is the second year that Congress has disclosed earmarks under the new ethics rules. TCS found the House Defense Authorization bill contains 539 earmarks totaling over $9.9 billion, a substantial increase from last year’s 449 earmarks worth $7.7 billion. This represents a more than 29% increase in the cost of earmarks and a 20% increase in the number of earmarks from the bill the House passed last year. The Senate Defense Authorization bill fared better, with 435 earmarks totaling $5.4 billion. This represents a slight decrease from last year’s Senate bill dollar amount of $5.6 billion, but the number of earmarks increased 126 from last year's 309.

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Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) requested an astounding 49 earmarks totaling over $198 million. Two earmarks of $5 million each went to General Motors, one of his top contributors with over $29,000 contributed so far this election cycle. The $5 million earmarks would go to the “next generation non-tactical vehicle propulsion technologies” and “Navy/USMC fuel cell non-tactical vehicle initiative,” which benefit Senator Levin’s home state of Michigan.

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