The Hill is reporting that today the Democrats in the Senate introduced a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would fund the government through fiscal year 2011, according to Senate GOP sources. That is truly amazing. First of all it is amazing that they would introduce an omnibus spending bill in a lame-duck session with days remaining rather than a continuing resolution.
There will be an article in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal commenting on the fact that the lame-duck session is asking for votes on both the START Treaty and the omnibus spending bill. The Journal reports:
"The last-minute omnibus should also offend Senators who claim to have heard the voters on November 2. This jam-job is a substitute for the 12 individual spending bills that Congress was supposed to have passed during the summer. But for the first time in modern memory, Democrats never got around to passing a budget outline, much less specific spending bills. So now they want to rush one giant bill into law when no one is paying attention.
"Congress does have to fund the government, but it can do that with a simple continuing resolution that maintains the status quo for three months or so until the next Congress gets up and running. The catch is that this would mean no earmarks, and no riders for this or that special interest that Members on the Appropriations Committee can write into a formal spending bill. This includes 10 or so GOP Appropriators, some of whom are leaving the Senate and want a last hurrah. Their fellow Senators deserve the chance to offer amendments on the floor at the very least, assuming their staff members get the time to read 2,000 pages."
Last year the Democrats managed to push the healthcare bill through the House of Representatives on Christmas Eve when they thought no one was looking. This year they are trying to push a pork-laden spending bill through the Senate in the hope that no one is looking. Well, the American public is looking. This is just nasty. I would rather see the government have to shut down than to see this bill pass!
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