Cry Me a River Following his promise during last week's State of the Union speech, President Bush issued Executive Order 13457, "Protecting American Taxpayers from Government Spending on Wasteful Earmarks" which "makes clear that future earmarks included in report language will be ignored." According to the White House, last year, Bush asked Congress to voluntarily cut the number and dollar amount of earmarks in half, and he asked lawmakers to place earmarks in the actual text of the bill rather than in report language. "Congress did not get the job done on either count. There are still too many earmarks and too little accountability." Only two problems with E.O. 13457:

• Been There, Done That -- According to the watchdog group Citizen's Against Government Waste, in 2001 there were 6,333 earmarks totaling $18.5 billion in the federal budget. By 2005, that number had ballooned to $27.3 billion for 13,997 projects. In 2007, the first year the Democrats controlled Congress, the numbers dropped dramatically to $13.2 billion for 2,658 earmarks. The Executive branch is, at this point, a greater earmarks offender than Congress.
• Do As I Say, Not as I Did -- The long arm of the law applies this Order to earmarks in "bills Congress will send Presidents in future years. This prospective policy will remain in effect unless the Executive Order is repealed by a future President."

Did Bush have boo to say about the evil of earmarks in the years when his party controlled Congress? So much for matters of principle.