It’s nearly 2,000 pages, and even the tables summarizing its thousands of earmarks are a sight to behold.
The AP is rightly portraying the bill as the porkers’ last hurrah, a kind of monster’s ball for old-guard appropriators — Republican and Democratic alike — “seeking one last victory before tea party-backed GOP insurgents storm Congress intent on ending the good old days of pork-barrel politics.”
“That omnibus bill will be loaded down with earmarks and pork barrel spending, which is a direct — a direct — betrayal of the majority of voters on Nov. 2 who said ‘Stop the earmarking, stop the spending, stop the pork barrel projects,’” protested Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
And Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) tells National Review Online that while he hasn’t had a chance to review the package, it “sounds like a last gasp effort of a congress that spends too much.”
Indeed, the Senate bill has more pork fat than the House counterpart passed last week, and far worse, it contains funding for Obamacare implementation.
Democrats are already actively courting the handful of Republican votes that will be necessary to overcome the promised filibuster. Retiring Sen. Bob Bennett (R., Utah) has already said he will support it, and Sens. Kit Bond (R., Mo.), George Voinovich (R., Ohio) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) have said they are thinking about doing the same.
Passage of this bill will be a Godsend for the democrats and it will dig a deep, deep credibility hole the GOP will have to climb out of next year if they support it. Thats probably a given, knowing the spendthrift zombies largely representative of the Senate GOP. I have every expectation the brain-eaters will prevail. I just wonder if this presages GOP failure of will to do what it was elected to do.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBennett has been freed to be even less conservative than he was. This is a great chance for the old-school types who probably hate the Tea Partiers to give them a nice thumb in the eye on the way out the door. Unfortunate that GOP Senators are going along with Democrats in giving the voters the finger.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo - how can we "bring the pain" to the pork-fueled lame ducks? Take away their birthdays? Call them names?
Gotta be SOMETHING...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't like seeing editorializing in wire dispatches...but I'm willing to give the AP a pass for this sentence, because it's something that should be shouted from the rooftops:
"The year-end logjam continues a long tradition in which a dysfunctional Congress is unable to do its most basic job of providing money to run the government on time."
I believe the last Congress to pass all its appropriation bills before the fiscal year started was the 104th. Each and every Member should be ashamed.
What in the Sam Hill are we paying full-time legislators for if they can't even properly fund the government?
(And don't get me started on the fact that it's two weeks into December, and we still don't know what the income and estate tax rates for 2011 will be. Uncertainty can dampen growth and kill jobs just as the rate hikes themselves can...and these idiots have given us *years* worth of absolutely crazy, erratic fluctuation and uncertainty on the estate tax especially.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was on the fence with the original tax compromise but this is getting ridiculous. Kill this thing already. Just shut it down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt is not only the pork but the resources consumed to come up with such an unwieldy huge piece of legislation.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis has to be a record or something. The GOP majority is finished before they started.
What a bunch of losers.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAfter being defeated in the Utah primary, Bob Bennett whined that the misinformed voters didn't understand all the good he did in the Senate. This vote simply confirms that the voters DID understand -- it was Bennett who did not (and still does not) understand what he was elected to do.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRight of Center, how exactly is the new majority "finished" when the point of this story is that the new House majority will make this sort of thing impossible?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis "compromise" is an attempt at refutation of the election. If the GOP goes along with this bloated bill, they will have NO credibility in the next congress.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePassage of the tax non-deal was always going to presage this monstrosity, and IMO is the main advantage to it not passing. The new congress is ham-strung before the get-go, by virtue of the deaf RINO establishment complying with lame-duck dems and their leader.
Started to read the Omnibus at the links provided, first stop the TSA summary and boy, aren't we lucky:
$2.95 billion for Transportation Security Officers, including funds for an additional 5,355 (yes, additional) Transportation Security Officers to staff new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units. $192Million for more of these AIT units.
So, have these cancer causing machines been inadequately operated thus far? Need we ask? Any chance the draconian invasion into the privacy of fliers and rail and bus passengers will recede? Far from it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseElections aren't enough to evict and punish these honorable criminals. I hope every last one of them that votes for this goes to prison. Maybe, if we have a Crookileaks of Congressional documents, they will. Any Congressional staffers reading this? Please do your part and send a crook to jail.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSusan Collins is thinking of voting for the Omnibortion, huh?
Well, this just goes to show that self-aggrandizing tone-deaf idiots can now enjoy long and profitable careers in the Senate.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think Bob Bennett believes pork is exactly why he was sent to Washington, DC. I disagree with him completely, but he's a little old to try and change his spots.
Bob Bennett was a good Senator for our State, but IMO, two Senate terms is plenty for anyone. Find something else to do and give someone else a turn.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe more I see the post-election behavior of Bob Bennett and Mike Castle, the more I think the GOP voters who denied them nomination in 2010 were correct when they nominated other candidates. I hope Bob Bennett goes back to Utah, Mike Castle goes back to Delaware, and we never hear from either man again.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy is the GOP even entertaining substantive legislation coming out of a lame duck session of Congress. The Democrats would be screaming bloody murder if the GOP tried to pass laws that would never make it in the next Congress. Imagine that we are living in December of 2006 and the GOP has just lost its majorities in both houses of Congress. Nonetheless, the GOP starts enacting its wish list of legislation that will all be signed by President Bush before the newly elected Democrats can stop this from happening. Does anyone doubt that the Democrats would muster the courage to denounce such a move and then filibuster everything until the new Congress was seated?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Senate GOP has proven, with the Christmas Pork deal, that they are not serious. Why wouldn't the Democrat push more spending. Every GOP defector proves that they also can not be trusted with power. They are every bit as bad as the free spending Liberals!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCurrent GOP leadership is a bunch of cry babies and must be replaced by men. Men that are willing to take a principled stand.
GOP in 2010 is looking a lot like the Whigs of the 1890s.
It seems as though Begich and those like minded are hell bent on destroying America for fun and profit. Once again the left believes that as a whole, their constituants aren't smart enough to see that our tax dollars are being spread around to illegals, unions previous contributors in an effort to purchase or repurchase votes. Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski being the representatives for our state is an embarassment. Following the man without a brain down the yellow brick road to our economic collapse and loss of our sovereignty.
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