What a Spending Bill Should Look Like

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill
WASHINGTON — After wrestling with — and finally abandoning — a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $1...

Harry Reid Pulls Massive Omnibus Spending Bill; Mitch McConnell Reacts Video 12/16/10
Here is video of GOP Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacting to news that Democrat Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid had pulled the massive $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill because he did not have the 60-votes for Cloture - which would bring it up for an Up or Down vote. The massive bill was filled with more than 39,000 Earmarks, and was 1,924-pages long . This means some kind of continuing resolution will likely be needed to fund the Government until the new Congress can act in J...

Harry Reid Pulls Massive Omnibus Spending Bill; Mitch McConnell Reacts Video 12/16/10
Here is video of GOP Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacting to news that Democrat Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid had pulled the massive $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill because he did not have the 60-votes for Cloture - which would bring it up for an Up or Down vote. The massive bill was filled with more than 39,000 Earmarks, and was 1,924-pages long . This means some kind of continuing resolution will likely be needed to fund the Government until the new Congress can act in J...

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill
WASHINGTON — After wrestling with — and finally abandoning — a 1,900-page catch-all spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders need to come up with a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work was packed into the spending measure, including $158 billion for Military operations in Iraq and A...

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill
WASHINGTON -- After wrestling with - and finally abandoning - a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $158 billion for Military op...

Change Has Come to the Senate After Collapse of Massive Spending Bill, Republican Declares
Friday, December 17, 2010 By Fred Lucas Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (CNSNews.com) - "We just saw something extraordinary on the floor of the United States Senate," Sen. John McCain said Thursday night after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) - lacking enough votes - gave up on a Trillion-dollar, 1,924-page omnibus spending bill that included $8 billion in pork bar

Republicans kill omnibus bill, including their own earmarks
A $1.1 Trillion omnibus bill that included $8 billion in Earmarks from lawmakers who opposed them was pulled from the Senate after Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged that he did not have the votes to withstand a Republican Filibuster. All 42 Republicans had threatened to filibuster the bill, despite the fact that two Republican Senators — Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississippi — requested $561 million and $449 million in earmarks. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell req...

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill
(12-17) 08:10 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- After wrestling with — and finally abandoning — a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, incl...

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. After wrestling with — and finally abandoning — a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the federal government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished...

Senators Negotiate Spending Bill as Deadline Looms
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senate leaders were negotiating the details Friday of a must-pass measure to fund the Federal Government into early 2011, racing against a deadline of midnight Saturday to prevent a shutdown of government operations. The need for a short-term spending bill comes after Democrats conceded defeat and pulled a $1.1 Trillion spending package off the Senate floor late Thursday. That bill would have funded the government through Sept. 30, 2011, the end of the current Fiscal Year. ...

End of omnibus jeopardizes funding for Wall Street regulation
Increased funding for financial Regulators implementing the Wall Street Reform Bill has been jeopardized by the Senate's scrapping of an omnibus spending measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Thursday night that he lacked the support needed to advance a $1.1 Trillion omnibus bill, and instead would focus on crafting a short-term funding measure to keep the government running beyond Saturday. That decision could put the budgetary fate of the Securities and Exchange Commi...

Defeat 6 Weeks Too Late Is Still Sweet
Last night, Harry Reid pulled the pork-filled omnibus spending bill , agreeing to a 1-page CR to fund the government through the holidays: After wrestling with, and finally abandoning, a 1,900-page catch-all spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders need to come up with a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget wo...

Have Republicans Cleaned Up Their Act On Earmarking?
In times past porking up bills was a bit of Bipartisanship both parties enjoyed, but these days it seems that while Democrats just keep right on porking Republicans are becoming much more reticent in their spending requests. A new analysis by a group of federal-spending Watchdogs shows a striking imbalance between the parties when it comes to earmark requests. Democrats remain raging spenders, while Republicans have made enormous strides in cleaning up their act. In the Senate, the GOP made only...

Obama to sign tax-cut measure
President Obama on Friday is scheduled to sign the bill that extends the George W. Bush-era Tax Cuts, as Congress moves to wind up its lame-duck deliberations, a session marked by the changing nature of politics and power. The White House announced that Obama will sign the tax measure, which won final approval in the House late Thursday night. In addition to extending the tax cuts for two years, the bill adds 13 months of jobless benefits and cuts the Payroll Tax by 2 percentage points for a ye...

Senate Set To Vote On Short-term Funding Bill
WASHINGTON -Senators are set to vote on a short-term Federal Government funding bill later Friday or Saturday after Democrats ended efforts to pass a $1.1 Trillion bill to fund the government for the rest of the Fiscal Year Thursday. GOP Senators have proposed a so-called "continuing resolution" that would fund the Federal Government until Feb. 18 at the current levels. "We're looking forward to doing the CR," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) "It's a tremendous disappointment fo...

Reid Fights Obama: Earmarks Is What Were Supposed To Do
Preparing for a final showdown on the massive $1.1 Trillion spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defended the thousands of Earmarks in the measure as the basic function of Congress. “That’s our job. That‘s what we’re supposed to do,” Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, said as he chastised fellow senators who, while having requested pork-barrel spending earlier this year, are now decrying their inclusion in the spending bill. Mr. Reid challenged those senators to...

Omnibus bill appears to be dead
Senate Republicans appear to have defeated the $1.1 Trillion omnibus spending bill containing over 6,000 Earmarks as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced last night that he didn’t have the votes needed to push it through: Senate Democrats abruptly pulled down an omnibus spending bill after senior Republicans - caught with their hands in the cookie jar — deserted the measure in an effort to square themselves with Tea Party Activists and Conservatives in the party. Senate M...

White House: Pass giant year-end spending bill
WASHINGTON -- The White House is pressing for passage of a $1.27 Trillion year-end spending bill despite the inclusion of thousands of congressional pet projects that President Barack Obama had vowed to oppose. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday that Obama would prefer a bill without Earmarks. But he said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had told Obama that the Legislation is necessary because it contains key financing for National Security - including $158 billion ...

In Case You Were Wondering Democrats Out-Pork Republicans 50-1
This really comes as no surprise. Obama tripled the Deficit in one year. Pelosi has added $5 Trillion to the national Deficit in 4 years. And, the democratic members in Congress are no better. Democrats LOVE to spend your money. Press coverage of the Budget frenzy on Capitol Hill has suggested that pork-barrel earmark spending is still a Bipartisan problem, that after months of self-righteous Rhetoric about fiscal discipline, Republicans and Democrats remain equal-opportunity earmarkers. ItR...

Rachel Maddows Anger At U.S. Senate: Game Over For Support From Obama Base?
Last night the U.S. Senate voted on a bill that will extend the current Tax Cuts first put into place by President Bush after Senator Harry Reid appeared to capitulate to the threat of a Republican Filibuster. This appeared to frustrate, if not anger MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last night, and not only because it messed up the rundown of her show. It understandably irked the self-described progressive because it was just another example of, as she put it, “this phenom of passing bills in t...

The Omnibus Falls
As he stepped into a Capitol elevator late Thursday, bundled up in preparation for the winter winds, Sen. Mitch McConnell cracked a thin smile. For the low-key leader of Senate Republicans, good spirits were certainly in order. Minutes before, his cross-aisle counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, had sounded a death knell for the much-maligned $1.1 Trillion omnibus spending package — the pork-packed keystone of the Democratic lame-duck agenda. McConnell, in an interview with Nati...

Taxpayers Got a Big Christmas Present Yesterday, but It Wasnt the Tax Bill
There’s a lot of attention being paid to yesterday’s landslide vote in the House to prevent a big Tax Increase next year. If you’re a glass-half-full optimist, you will be celebrating the good news for Taxpayers. If you’re a glass-half empty pessimist, you will be angry because the bill also contains provisions to increase the burden of Government Spending as well as some utterly corrupt tax Loopholes added to the Legislation so politicians could get campaign cash from ...

Now Who's Thrown Under the Omnibus?
My column today is on the Omnibus Bill. I woke up this morning to discover that the omnibus bill failed, thus nullifying my column. Some might say that the breaking news gods are punishing me for my hubris. But I prefer to think that it was the incredible force of column that caused the Democrats to crumble. The idea’s utter lack of plausibility makes it all the more appealing.  Next column topics: DREAM Act, START etc. The gold standard in contemptuous politics remains Emperor Caligu...

Deficit Hawk Kent Conrad Requested $164 Million In Pork
It looks like the omnibus spending bill is toast in the Senate, with Harry Reid pulling the pork-laden Legislation in favor of a continuing resolution that will keep spending at current levels until the new Congress is seated and can address the Budget, but it’s worth noting that North Dakota’s delegation (including Senator Kent Conrad) requested a total of $307,786,300 in pork in that bill. Kent Conrad himself, the self-styled Deficit hawk who has said that the nation is on the edge...

Parties no longer equal on pork
The defeat last night of the OmniPorkulus bill, as the Boss Emeritus calls it, gives us a chance to revisit the long-held — and long-true — belief that both parties are equally addicted to pork-barrel spending.  That certainly proved true enough when Republicans held power, as Earmarks skyrocketed and both parties squealed with delight at the trough.  However, a new study by a coalition of of Watchdog groups on the FY2011 Budget proposal shows that one party has made great stride...