Reid dismisses Obama’s call for ban on earmarks
Barack Obama’s top ally in the Senate Tuesday brusquely rejected the president’s call for a ban on the practice of stuffing home state projects known as earmarks into spending bills.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the president “has enough power already” and that Obama’s reported embrace Tuesday night of an earmark ban promoted by Republicans is just a “lot of pretty talk.”
Reid made his remarks at a news conference in which he otherwise praised Obama in advance of Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
Reid is a skilled practitioner of earmarking, in which lawmakers direct projects like new roads, grants to local police departments and community development grants to their states and congressional districts.