The Hill News

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) waged a vigorous defense of earmarks on Thursday, hitting at both President Obama and Senate Republicans on the issue.

Reid wouldn't back off his support for the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill before Congress, along with the earmarks contained within it.

"I can't accept the fact that people are saying, 'Why should we vote for this? It's got congressionally-directed spending in it,' " Reid said at a press conference. "That's our job. That is what we are supposed to do."

Republicans have loudly criticized the omnibus legislation for its high price-tags and inclusion of earmarks, or specific projects directed to a state or district. The earmarks in the bill come from both Republicans and Democrats, since the legislation that feeds into the omnibus had been crafted before the GOP adopted a moratorium on the practice.

The Senate's Republicans have sought to use the earmarks to box in O! bama and Senate Democrats who have previously supported a ban on the practice, prompting swipes at both the GOP and the president on the issue.

Reid said he wouldn't let the White House "steal power that we've been granted in the Constitution."

"I am convinced that I don't want to give up power to the White House, whether it's George Bush or Barack Obama," he said.

Reid also lashed out at Republicans who haven't requested that their earmarks be stripped from the omnibus. (The GOP favors passing a stripped down continuing resolution that contains no such earmarks, and they argue that the old earmarks are moot if the bill is defeated.)

"As was learned yesterday, some of the people who speak out against congressionally-directed spending, or 'earmarks,' are people who have more earmarks than others," he said.