Congress bucks Obama on spending cuts

The L.A. Times reports:

As it turns out, President Obama's proposed spending cuts aren't entirely the kind of change Congress can believe in.

A determination to protect the power over the purse -- something Congress has fiercely guarded since the earliest days of the republic -- was on display Thursday as the House and Senate approved a bill preserving funding for a number of programs the White House had sought to cut.

It was the latest move by lawmakers in both parties to support projects they consider important to their states -- and perhaps to their reelection prospects.

The bill, which would fund environmental programs and the Interior Department, includes hundreds of earmarks: $1.4 million for repairs at Alcatraz and $1 million for land purchases in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, among others. That spending comes despite Obama's plea for lawmakers to scale back their controversial practice of steering money to pet projects.

The bull market in government spending continues!