With the country suffering a serious economic downturn, the $410 billion omnibus bill that the Senate passed today represents a missed opportunity. It costs far too much for a government that should be on a diet, and it contains troubling new policy. If President Obama is looking for his first veto, this should be it. The original version of the bill showed no recognition whatsoever of the current economic climate. With the stock market plunging, unemployment at a 25-year high, and millions struggling just to pay their mortgages, the bill sent over from the House included an across-the-board 8 percent increase in spending over last year — twice the rate of inflation. Republican proposals to improve the bill would have saved billions of taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, every one of them was turned aside. Sen. John McCain of Arizona proposed an amendment that would have held spending in the omnibus at last year’s level. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas offered an amendment that would have cut spending on the 122 programs that were already funded in the stimulus bill — the double-dipping that many of us warned would take place if Congress moved the stimulus before the omnibus. The Hutchison amendment represented a cut of just 1 percent when the bills are taken together. Remarkably, even that was too much for Democrats. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma proposed an amendment to cut projects that benefit a lobbying firm that is under federal investigation. That, too, was opposed. All these proposals were commonsense ways to cut spending, and all were rejected. The loser wasn’t the Republican party — it was the taxpayer. Just as troubling as the lack of spending restraint are the policy ideas that were either woven into the House version or rejected from the Senate version of the bill. Chief among them is a proposal to terminate a program that gives scholarships for private schools to low-income children in Washington, D.C. Established in 2004, the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program helped 1,700 D.C. students attend private schools last year at a fraction of the cost of what the city spends per pupil on public education. The popularity of this program is beyond dispute: For every available opening, the city receives four applications. Yet an amendment to preserve it, proposed by Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, failed on a party-line vote. It’s hard to see how Democrats can match their rhetoric with their actions when voting to terminate a program that gives inner-city kids the same educational opportunities that middle-class and affluent students enjoy. Throughout this debate, Republicans offered ways of improving the omnibus with sensible proposals most Americans would support. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona proposed an amendment that would have required the secretary of state to certify that none of the funds made available for reconstruction efforts in Gaza are diverted to Hamas or entities controlled by Hamas. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota offered an amendment that would prohibit the use of funds for any effort aimed at reviving the Fairness Doctrine. Both ideas were rejected. In the midst of an economic crisis, government has an obligation to show some restraint. But looking at the final omnibus bill, Americans are likely to conclude that congressional leaders think government operates in a different realm of reality than the rest of the country. It seems some still believe members of Congress aren’t obliged to make any of the tough decisions that most other people do. The dizzying amount of spending and borrowing that has been going on in Washington in recent weeks is simply unsustainable. The president’s budget calls for spending $3.6 trillion. The housing plan that went into effect last week could cost a quarter of a trillion dollars. The financial bailout will cost another $1 trillion to $2 trillion. Meanwhile, the nation has more than $10 trillion in debt. Given all this spending and borrowing, $410 billion might not seem like much to some in Washington. This is precisely the problem. It’s past time we started to think about the long-term sustainability of our economy, about creating jobs and opportunity for future generations. That will require hard choices. Unfortunately, the bill the Senate approved today avoided every single one of them.

– Senator McConnell is the Republican leader in the Senate.