After passing its $787 billion spending bill under the guise of “stimulus” and then attending President Obama’s “fiscal responsibility summit,” the House has approved a bonus hike in the 2009 budget for most domestic agencies of 8%.

The vote on this “omnibus” bill gives federal programs an extra $32 billion to spend for the seven months left in this fiscal year. And because these increases get added to the spending baseline in setting future budgets, Congress is adding an estimated $108 billion more in outlays over 10 years.

Remember all the promises of transparency in government, first from Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and then Barack Hussein Obama? Remember the promises of no earmarks?

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain fought vigorously over who would be toughest on congressional earmarks.

“We need earmark reform,” Obama said in September during a presidential debate in Oxford, Miss. “And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”

The $410 billion omnibus bill has about 9,000 earmarks totaling $7.7 billion. This bill opens the door to federal spending as a share of Gross National Product (GDP) to nearly 28% — by far the highest level since World War II.

“The American people expect bold and rapid action that will create jobs and strengthen our economy for the long-term, reform our health care system to reduce costs and increase coverage, move our nation toward energy independence and a green economy, and modernize education to foster innovation and competitiveness in the global economy,” House Communist-in-Chief Nancy Pelosi said in a statement after the passage of the bill.

Show Me the Earmark Money!

• $2.2 million to study grape genetics;
• $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management;
• $1.7 million for a honey bee laboratory;
• $190,000 Buffalo Bill Historical Center;
• $346,000 for research on apple fire blight in Michigan and New York;
• $332,500 to demolish the Acme Building in Jackson, Michigan;
• $200,000 for “Tattoo Removal Violence Prevention Outreach Program”;
• $100,000 for the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation;
• $5,800,000 for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate at the University of Massachusetts;
• $1,600,000 for the ACORN Housing Corporation;
• $400,000 for AARP training;
• $1,300,000 for the National Council of La Raza;
• $1,000,000 for the National Urban League;

If you really wish to spend some time viewing lobbying firm connections to Capitol Hill make sure you are sitting down. Both sides of the aisle are guilty of the earmark parade and the numbers don’t lie.

“I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution; and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadily resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people.” – President Grover Cleveland

With the new tax and spend policies instituted by Obama and Co., the American public should get ready for real doom and gloom for the incentives to do well are being scrapped for Socialist policies despite the fact the Daniel Henninger at The Wall Street Journal would claim that, “This isn’t socialism, but it is not the system we’ve had since the early 1980s.” Mr. Henninger would have us believe this is only a “A Radical Presidency” but we might ask you to stay tuned if you believe Obama is only “radical” and not a full-fledged Socialist.

Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can’t possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama’s new spending ambitions. This also comes from a more realistic side of The Wall Street Journal.

…IRS data for 2006, the most recent year that such tax data are available and a good year for the economy and “the wealthiest 2%.” Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006. (That’s about 7% of all returns; the data aren’t broken down at the $250,000 point.) These people paid about $522 billion in income taxes, or roughly 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1% — about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 — paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported U.S. income.

Note that federal income taxes are already “progressive” with a 35% top marginal rate, and that Mr. Obama is (so far) proposing to raise it only to 39.6%, plus another two percentage points in hidden deduction phase-outs. He’d also raise capital gains and dividend rates, but those both yield far less revenue than the income tax. These combined increases won’t come close to raising the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue that Mr. Obama is going to need.

Like Mr. Obama’s Cabinet picks who had “problems” his economy solution is either not planned out well or they will simply go back to more taxpayers and soak them more.

Taxes matter and taxing discourages spending by individuals and especially business. The so-called “rich” will have less money to consume, will save more and invest less to expand business and create real jobs.

Small and medium-sized businesses are the nation’s primary employers, and lower individual tax rates have induced thousands of them to shift from filing under the corporate tax system to the individual system, often as limited liability companies or Subchapter S corporations.

The Tax Foundation calculates that merely restoring the higher, Clinton-era tax rates on the top two brackets would hit 45% to 55% of small-business income, depending on how inclusively “small business” is defined.

Obama promised earmark reform and recently suggested that Congress sacrifice earmarks in the federal budget,  but Harry Reid argued that Congress knows better than “faceless bureaucrats” how to spend taxpayer money. However, Obama asked for $740 million in money for special projects during his first three years as a senator.

“I’m proud that we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks, and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar we spend reflects only our most important national priorities,” Obama said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that the president has “great concern” over earmarks in the omnibus, but didn’t indicate whether Obama would veto the legislation.

Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) tried to reframe the oft-criticized earmarks by instead referring to them as “congressional initiatives.”

“And if it weren’t for congressional initiatives, a lot of projects and programs that we’re now hailing as good would be dead,” Inouye told The Hill.

By trying to eliminate earmarks, “you’re assuming the only people with brains are the administration people [and] the legislators have no brains,” Inouye added.

If the shoe fits then wear it Mr. Inouye!

While the mainstream media waits with baited breath for the “First Dog” to arrive the new tax and spend administration is the real dog and Barack Obama is the new “lapdog” (see video) of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Indeed!

See Also: Does Obama Have A Double Standard On Earmarks?