It’s time for President Obama to put your money where his mouth is.

Despite a rapidly tanking economy and a current-year $1.75 trillion budget deficit, the president says he’ll halve the shortfall by the end of his first term.

Not if he keeps on giving Congress a free hand, he won’t.

Fresh from the $787 billion stimulus package, Congress last week weighed a $410 billion supplemental budget bill. The measure is meant to fund federal agencies through the end of September.

In addition to boosting discretionary spending by a fat 8%, the cumbersome beast also includes 9,000-plus earmarks – member-designated pork projects – totaling nearly $8 billion.

The president has been talking a good game against earmarks – even though he got his fair share while in the Senate: In his first three years there, Obama scored more than $90 million worth.

But, after declaring for the presidency in 2007, he said he would no longer seek earmarks (albeit a promise not too hard to keep – like most senators running for president, he mostly was on the road and not voting on legislation).

And he’s been talking them down since.

In his Feb. 9 press conference, the president proudly boasted: “There are no earmarks in this [stimulus] package – something again that was pretty rare over the last eight years.”

In his Feb. 24 address to the Congress, he said: “I’m proud that we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks, and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar we spend reflects only our most important national priorities.”

But what about this year? Nearly $8 billion in congressional pork is OK?

Obama needs to get serious.

Under any circumstances, an earmark-laden supplemental budget of this sort would be unwise.

But added to a $787 billion stimulus bill?

Insane.

If Obama’s credibility matters to him, he needs to send Congress a clear message.

He needs to veto the supplemental budget, and tell Congress to send back a clean bill.