Clearing the Browser Tabs – Omnibus Thursday Edition

I spent the better part of yesterday collecting links about the gargantuan Omnibus Spending Bill that Harry Reid wants us to pass on the quick before the first of the year. I realized pretty quickly, though, that I had far too many links and far too little time today to write all the posts I could.

I will probably take some of the links from this post and use them in other posts between now and the end of the week, but I wanted to share them with you now so you can get a good handle on the size of the OSB, the amount of pork that’s involved, and what the Republicans are and aren’t doing to make sure you don’t get slammed with Harry’s Last Hurrah.

And now, links

• The bill is 1,924 pages long and will cost right around $1.1 trillion. That means that each page will cost us about $575 million dollars.
• The Senate Republicans sent John Cornyn and John Thune to tell the media that the approximately $8 billion in earmarks were an abomination. That would have been a good plan except for two things: 1) Cornyn and Thune have 11 pages of earmarks in the bill; and 2) the reporters at the press conference knew about their pork. Needless to say, it did not go well (via memeorandum).
• In related news, John Thune says he really didn’t mean to have any pork in the bill. “>He just forgot his four pages of earmarks were there because he put them in before he pinky-swore to conservative voters that he was all about the fiscal responsibility. Did I mention he’s definitely running for President in 2012? Yep, folks, you can safely cross him off the list now.
• It’s not all incompetence, hypocrisy, and failure in the Senate, though. Jim DeMint wants the whole bill read out loud before a vote. That ought to chew up a week or ten days.
• If you think you’re a tad bit miffed that our elected representatives would try to stuff a massive crap sandwich with extra crap and crap on the side down our throats during a lame duck session, you should read Pat Austin’s post. A finer “what the hell are you thinking” post has never been written.
• John Boehner, who will become Speaker once the Democrats clear out in January, has a little challenge for the President (via Instapundit).
• Just when you think the lame duck Democrats can’t get any more lame, they drop another omnibus bill, stuffed yet more full of pork and totalitarian land grabs.
• Heritage says it’s time to stop messing around and call Harry Reid’s bluff. Polls suggest that, with just a small amount of good PR and media work, the country will overwhelmingly turn on the lame duck Democrats.

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Category: General