The Ominous Omnibus

Last night, the House, as expected, passed the earmark-laden omnibus.  The bill now heads off to the Senate, where, after the addition of about $70 billion in troop funding, it’s expected to pass.  The President, whom some had hoped might issue a veto threat over the bill’s earmarks and grossly irresponsible spending measures, has indicated that it will most likely sign the bill. Heritage quotes budget director Jim Nussle saying, "“I don’t think [President Bush] has ever made the statement that he would veto legislation because of the insistence of earmarks.” In other words, don’t expect the White House to put up much of a fight.

There’s plenty of grist for the conservative anti-spending mill in the bill, and I’m still going through it all, but I’ve gathered a handful of interesting, relevant, and somewhat depressing factoids and info items related to the spending bill.

• The bill contains a whopping 696 pages of earmarks, including at least 9,170 individual items.
• It spends a little over $20 billion more than was spent last year.
• The cost of earmarks alone total more than $12 billion.
• There are provisions for more than $11 billion in “emergency spending.”  Bu the RSC argues that “Much of this spending does not meet the budget’s criteria for such spending (sudden, unforeseen, temporary, urgent, etc.), causing many conservatives to conclude that the Appropriations Committee is utilizing a major gimmick to avoid budget restraints.“
• Democrats, always and forever in the pocket of Big Labor, have included $3.7 million in non-competitive grants to the AFL-CIO and another $2.2 million grant to the United Mine Workers of America.
  
• Here’s a shocker. The appropriations bill allots an additional $3.8 million to… you guessed it… the Appropriations Committee.  (Nothing is more predictable in Washington than government organizations deciding to give themselves more money.)
• The omnibus increases funding for the IRS by almost $300 million over last year.  (Want to save money at the IRS? Dump the tax code and replace it with this.)
• Starving artist? No more! The bill throws almost $150 million toward the National Endowment for the Humanities.

There’s more, of course (when it comes to spending in Washington, there’s always more).  But this should give you an idea of what a mess this thing is.