Last March when President Barack Obama signed the last omnibus bill, it was stuffed full of “pork barrel” projects that included more than 9,000 earmarks. The new president cited a need to get the bill passed and claimed all the unnecessary spending was really unfinished business left over by the Bush administration. He vowed not to allow passage of any more bills that contained locally wasteful spending projects such as the one he signed in the spring. Furthermore, Democrats in Congress rejected an amendment by Sen. John McCain to strip the bill’s 9,000 earmarks.

Now it’s fair to ask: Has the president misled his fellow Americans? Was this a lie?

I well recall statements made by then-candidate Obama that, if elected, his administration would be more transparent than the Bush administration. Americans, he said, would be allowed to watch debate about such spending bills on C-Span.

The truth: Not only have Republicans been shut out of many debates going on in Washington, so have the American people.

The current omnibus bill contains more than 5,244 earmarks and seeks $4 billion for lawmakers in their districts. Additionally, it provides an inflated 12 percent increase in federal spending.

All this comes at a time when inflation is low and our budget deficit is way out of control. With an annual budget deficit of more than $1 trillion and legislation hiking the national debt ceiling to more than $14 trillion, this vote by Congress represents more irresponsible spending.

To make matters worse, the Senate is on the verge of passing the largest single piece of legislation in the history of our nation. The health care reform bill — minus most of the reforms, incidentally — is now projected to cost American taxpayers more than $1 trillion. Some estimates are three times that amount.

No one can even say for sure if health care costs will actually decline if this legislation is enacted. Some in Congress actually believe medical costs will skyrocket under the proposal.

And yet, many in Congress and the White House insist on rushing this bill to passage, even as many of the bill’s supporters acknowledge its gargantuan flaws.

This comes at a time when our elected officials should be showing constituents they’re serious about fiscal responsibility. Instead they continue to display their arrogance. It’s business as usual in D.C.

We keep hearing talk about these “unsustainable” budget deficits, yet the politicians in Washington continue to pass bloated spending bills. While most Americans are deleveraging their own balance sheets and saving more, our government continues to spend money we don’t have in the name of saving our country and social justice.

There is a more cynical reason this administration and the Democrats continue to push their agenda. Because health care represents a sixth of our economy, it fits right into this administration’s plans to control our lives. Put that with the cap-and-trade legislation sure to follow and the government will have more control over us than most European countries exercise. Our national debt is like a tsunami bearing down on an island only a few feet above sea level. Our children and future generations will bear the burden of these mistakes.

Last Wednesday President Obama told ABC news anchor Charlie Gibson that if the health care legislation didn’t pass, “the federal government will go bankrupt.” This is nothing more than gamesmanship being played on the American people by their president. How can spending trillions of dollars on Obamacare prevent our federal government from bankruptcy?

Almost everyone agrees this type of spending is eventually going to cause America great pain, yet no one seems to care enough to do much about it.

As Americans, we deserve far more from our elected officials. The politicians back in Washington need to be reminded of how they got there. We need to hold them accountable in the 2010 congressional elections. It is not too late, for our voices are loud. We must stop the madness before the tsunami arrives.

Gordon Robinson is president of Robinson Media, which owns the Tribune-Herald.