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Democrats to name their pet projects; whatever they were, he’d put them in the package.
    It was like inviting an alcoholic in for a drink. And Congress was a thirsty drunk.
    The proposals came fast and furious. The total cost was $787 billion. The stimulus bill itself ran 1,071 pages. Not that any member of Congress had time to read it, because the text didn’t reach them until a few hours before they had to pass it.
    And here it is in all its gory glory!
    OBAMA’S STIMULUS PACKAGE

    Source: Michael Grabell and Christopher Weaver, “The Stimulus Plan: A Detailed List of Spending,” ProPublica.org, February 13, 2009, www.propublica.org/special/the-stimulus-plan-a-detailed-list-of-spending.
     
    It’s all a big spender could ever wish for—an orgy of outlays.
    But even that much spending wasn’t enough for Obama and his hungry Democrats. As soon as Congress passed the stimulus bill, it went to work on a supplemental appropriations bill and added another $410 billion to the spending frenzy.
    Obama had promised that he would eliminate earmarks. In his campaign against John McCain, he excused his own earmarks as a political necessity, making plain his desire to reform the system if he were elected. But enthusiasm for the avalanche of spending overcame his commitments and Obama signed the bill—even though it contained 9,287 earmarks, whose cost totaled $12.8 billion. 6
    These earmarks made a mockery of the reform Obama claimed as his mantra. But even as he violated his promises by signing the earmark-laden bill, he issued recommendations to Congress to avoid earmarks in the future, clinging to his image as an apostle of fiscal responsibility.
    Take a look at some of these earmarks and gauge for yourself how fiscally responsible our president really is:
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    OBAMA: TONE DEAF TO EARMARKS
    Earmarks in President Obama’s 2009 budget
     
    $1,049,000   for control of Mormon crickets in Utah 7
    $200,000   to fund tattoo removal clinic in California 8
    $190,000   for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Wyoming 9
    $2,673,000   for the Wood Education and Research Center 10
    $300,000   to promote women’s sports in Boston 11
    $206,000   to promote “wool research” 12
    $2,192,000   for the Center for Grape Genetics, Geneva, NY 13
    $1,791,000   to Swine Odor & Manure Management Research, Iowa 14
    $45,000   for weed removal in Berkshire, MA 15
    $469,000   for a fruit fly facility in Hawaii 16
    $800,000   for oyster rehabilitation in Alabama 17
    $4,545,000   for wood utilization research in Michigan 18
    $75,000   to create a “totally teen zone” for teens in Albany, Georgia 19
    $300,000   for research on migrating loons 20
    $900,000   for Chicago planetarium pushed by Rahm Emanuel 21
    $190,000   to buy trolleys in Puerto Rico 22
    $380,000   for lighthouse renovation in Maine 23
    $7,800,000   for sea turtle research in Hawaii 24
    $2,600,000   to monitor the population of Hawaiian Monk Seals 25
    $1,500,000   for research on pelagic fisheries in Hawaii 26
    $650,000   for beaver research and management in Mississippi and North Carolina 27
    $1,700,000   for a honey bee factory in the Rio Grande Valley 28
     
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    Combined, the stimulus package and the Supplemental Appropriations Bill have left us with a deficit of at least $1.8 trillion for this year—a figure equal to 12 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). 29 Other, possibly more accurate estimates put it at $2 trillion, or 14 percent of GDP. 30
    Never since World War II has our deficit been even remotely that high. When the deficit crested at 4.7 percent of GDP in 1992, Bill Clinton had to focus all his energies on bringing it down. Now its size exceeds comprehension. In the worst of its economic recession, Japan tried supporting all manner of public works—to no avail—and swelled its deficit to 10 percent of GDP. But 12 percent and rising is a new peacetime record.
    So anxious were Obama