clipped from: www.iht.com Lawmakers, including the House Republican whip, Roy Blunt of Missouri, have cautioned the White House that a furor over earmarks could upend Bush's hopes for cooperation with Congress on other issues, including efforts to revive the economy.
Moreover, Republicans shudder at the possibility that a Democratic president might reject all their earmarks.
A new tally by the White House Office of Management and Budget shows that the 2008 spending bills signed by Bush include more than 11,700 earmarks, totaling $16.9 billion. By the White House count, the number was down 1,754 from 2005, and the amount of money was down $2.1 billion, or 11 percent.
Bush recently mocked earmarks for a prison museum in Kansas and a sailing school in California.
Nearly one-fifth of the earmarks and more than one-third of the money were in the Defense Department appropriations bill.