Dave Weigel reports that the Senate Appropriations Committee has earmarks:
The Senate Appropriations Committee has announced a "moratorium on earmarks for the current session of Congress." This is a very clear win for conservatives. Even if it was made inevitable by President Obama's State of the Union promise to veto any bills with earmarks, it contravenes the wishes of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has warned that an earmark ban takes constitutional power away from Congress.
It's also a win for president Obama, who now gets to spend the money however he wants. A threat to veto bills with earmarks sounds really righteous, but as Jamelle Bouie has written, it's the equivalent to the president saying, "Give me all your appropriations money."
