White House Ignores Reid on Earmarks

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took umbrage with President Barack Obama’s pledge in his State of the Union address to veto any bill with earmarks in it. But the White House isn’t backing down, The Hill reports.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says that if a bill with earmarks is presented to the president, "he will veto it, and he will send it back."

Gibbs says, "The president was clear on this. We're going to make some very, very tough decisions, as the president talked about, in his budget. We're going to make some decisions that cut programs that Democrats and Republicans alike will both say are important. But we're doing that because we know right now the government spends far, far more than it takes in and that that can't continue."