The continuing kerfuffle over earmarks

Related rulings:

"The president campaigned against this type of legislation."

John Boehner, Wednesday, February 25th, 2009.

Ruling: True | Details

The omnibus bill has only $3.8 billion in earmarks.

Democratic congressional leadership, Monday, March 2nd, 2009.

Ruling: False | Details

Bookmark this story:

Earmarks on livestock are easier to count than earmarks in the Omnibus.

As the $410 billion Omnibus spending bill moves through Congress, Republicans are once again complaining that a Democratic bill is loaded with earmarks.

Last week, we examined John McCain's claim that it has more than 9,000 earmarks, so today we're focusing on a widely cited Democratic number that the earmarks total just $3.8 billlion. We found that number doesn't include things that can reasonably be called earmarks, so we rated the Democrats' statement False .

We also found lots of confusion about what exactly President Obama promised during the campaign. Some in the media have incorrectly said that Obama promised to eliminate earmarks (a misinterpretations we've also heard from several of our readers), but we found John Boehner was on the money with his claim that Obama "campaigned against this type of legislation."

We expect we haven't heard the last about earmarks this week.