Reid Pulls Controversial $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill in Favor of Short-Term Budget Fix

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Reid Pulls Controversial $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill in Favor of Short-Term Budget Fix

Published December 16, 2010

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, bowing to Republican opposition to a 1,924-page $1.2 trillion spending measure packed with earmarks, withdrew the bill and said he would work with Republican leaders on a smaller, short-term budget fix to avoid a looming government shutdown.

The government already is operating on a temporary stopgap measure, set to expire at the end of Friday. Republicans had insisted on having the massive spending bill read aloud – a move that would have delayed a final vote until next week.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has offered a one-page stopgap bill that would fund the government for just the next two months. Reid said he would with McConnell to finalize such a measure.

Republicans had strongly condemned the $1.27 trillion omnibus spending bill, which would fund the government through Sept. 30, for its $8.3 billion worth of earmarks -- some of which belong to Republicans.

Defenders of earmarks point out that the money for congressional earmarks represents a tiny portion of the bill -- less than 1 percent -- and that lawmakers know the needs of their states and congressional districts better than administration bureaucrats. And just because something is in the president's budget doesn't mean that it's not pork.

"If you look up earmark in the dictionary, it means 'to designate or set aside.' It is not 'in addition to,'" said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah. "If the Congress

does not exercise its constitutional authority to designate where the funds will go, the administration will usurp that authority and you will get every bit as much pork barrel spending."

Such arguments, however, have been drowned out by protests from Tea Party activists and other opponents of the projects, who make fun of earmarks like $100,000 obtained by Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., to renovate the Edgar Allan Poe museum in the Bronx, a cottage where the poet lived for the final three years of his life.

Other senators with earmarks in the bill after voting last month to ban them include Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Kay Baily Hutchison, R-Texas; Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Even avid earmarker Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee -- who obtained almost 300 earmarks totaling more than $500 million -- hasn't explicitly come out in support of the bill, though he's widely expected to vote with Democrats later this week to advance it.

So is Ohio Republican George Voinovich, who's responsible, along with Democratic homestate colleague Sherrod Brown, for 77 earmarks totaling $94 million.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/16/senate-scrambles-avoid-government-shutdown-gop-forces-read-thon/#ixzz18KN4HURm

[Pooky 3,785]

Republicans had insisted on having the massive spending bill read aloud

Sounds like a great idea. Seriously, the politicians voting on Bills should know what's in them.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Sounds like a great idea. Seriously, the politicians voting on Bills should know what's in them.

No it's better to pass them and then see what's in them.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

The Dems are so clueless. But not to worry, Obama will keep hope alive.