Omnibus Spending: The Last Gasp of the 111th Session

Congress is in gridlock over the omnibus spending bill because it is filled with over $8 billion in "earmarks," which were the bane of public outrage in the recent November midterm elections.

The $575 million-per-page estimate of the $1.1 trillion spending "spree" that the lame duck Democratic session wanted to pass so desperately was announced dead by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Even though Reid said he had some Republican support for the bill, Minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was able to hold a strong caucus against the bill. Democrats were holding out hope since at least nine GOP Senators had spending pork for their home states in the bill.

McConnell issued a challenge for his GOP members (and presumably Democrats as well) to cut their home spending portions of the bill. But overall, McConnell said that defeating it was better than allowing it to go through.

"I'm proud of our team for holding together," McConnell said. "I'm proud of the appropriations-committee members who decided that this is not the way to do it." Instead of following Reid's demands, "we decided that we're not going to pass a 2,000-page bill that nobody has seen since yesterday. That's not the way to operate and that's not the message from the November elections. We decided not to do it. Unified Republican opposition is what got it done."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued a request that Congress pass the bill, despite all the pork.

"I don't much like the earmarks either," Gates said at the White House briefing Thursday. "But, I have to look at the alternative. A year-long continuing resolution would be a $19 billion cut in the budget." Gates believes the cut would hamper defense efforts worldwide.

Partisanship inside the Beltway is obviously the issue. Reid wants the bill to pass. He needs it to pass so that Democrats don't look impotent in light of the recent defeats that bring the House into a GOP majority after January and the Senate out of the super majority business. McConnell needs it to be defeated so Republicans can flex their collective political muscle to send a message to the White House of things to come and to the people giving credence to the same aforementioned victory in the midterms.

Members on both sides acknowledged that the rhetoric had gotten out of control. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) lamented that the high-fiving and glorious speeches were absent in the recent tax deal between the White House and GOP. But she also voiced concerns that the American people have been decrying for months:

"It's not a basketball game," she said "This isn't about winning and losing . . . I think we need to get away from treating the work of the Senate as if it was a sporting event."

On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) said "What I hope will happen is that both sides will work together because it's going to take both sides to do this....There were a lot of things said that probably didn't need to be said, but the outcome is what needed to happen."

However, this gridlock is not good for anyone. The idea that McConnell softly pressed upon his colleagues should be thought of as a foundation. The only things in the omnibus bill should be just what is needed to fund the government for 2011. Just as every manager with profit and loss responsibility knows, you base the annual budget on the previous year's budget, add 10 percent and look at variables that may affect the company's needs. Then come up with a figure that most accurately represents these needs.

The government needs to do the same. Each member of Congress needs to look at the basic foundation of running the government, with input from all the department heads. Add in the costs of possible federal assistance in parts of the country likely to get hit with natural disasters. Look at what the military might need in the coming year. Then add all this together to come up with a fairly realistic number for funding the government. No pork. No extra amendments giving money for 100 percent of a state project like turtle underpasses and expansion of an airport that no one ever really uses.

However, it seems unlikely, given all the rhetoric and partisan politics that still infect the halls of our federal government. Even though the people let their feelings known about all this nonsense last November, it is not realistic to believe that the way business has been handled in the nation's capital can change overnight.

We will more than likely see a Continuing Resolution passed before the end of this congressional session. And then there will be "emergency spending requests" throughout 2011. But someday, soon we all hope, the business of the people will be held with the interest of the people in mind, rather than by the flexing of individual political muscles for some ideological difference where it doesn't belong.

Sources

National Review: How the Omnibus Fell: NPR
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/17/132132081/national-review-how-the-omnibus-fell

White House on Omnibus - FoxNews.com
http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/12/16/white-house-omnibus-prefer-not-have-earmarks#ixzz18NkY8qXK

Taxpayers for Common Sense
http://www.taxpayer.net/user_uploads/file/Earmarks/2010/TCS%20Rankings%20FY%202011%20Omnibus%20Earmarks.pdf

Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/14/reid-threatens-keep-congress-next-year/

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