Dems Christmas Gift to America: A $1.1 TRILLION, 1,924 Page Bill

The Democrats just threw out a $1.1 trillion budget bill today. They're going to try to force it to a vote with neither a chance for review nor debate. Merry Christmas!

Fox News reports:

"Republicans poring over a 1,924-page overarching spending bill proposed by Democrats to cover the rest of the fiscal year are threatening to grind the legislation to a halt, citing massive earmark spending, which, if passed, would be enacted into law without debate in the full Senate.
Two sources who spoke to Fox News are describing the legislation as 'a total mess.'

"But the head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said he believes the legislation must pass.

"'The twelve bills included in this package fulfill the Congress' most basic responsibility, to exercise the power of the purse,' he said in a statement. 'This measure reflects a year's worth of work by members of both parties. Together, we have closely scrutinized the president's budget request, held hundreds of hearings, thousands of meetings, and asked literally tens of thousands of questions to each and every federal department and agency seeking justification for how taxpayer dollars are being spent.'

"Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, responded in a statement, saying that after neglecting to pass a budget, 'today we learn Senate Democrats now want to sandwich them together, totaling almost 2,000 pages, and jam them through in the waning moments of this lame duck session before anyone can read them. This political end-around reveals just how quickly my colleagues across the aisle have already forgotten the voters' message in November.'

[...]

"In total, thousands of earmark requests are listed. The financial services earmark chart, for instance, lists 220 earmark requests from dozens of lawmakers, mostly in the House, each worth anywhere from $50,000 to $2.4 million. The largest sum was requested by Inouye and his Hawaii colleague Sen. Daniel Akaka for 'Bank on USA' demonstration projects in their state. The projects are designed to give underserved communities greater access to financial institutions.

"Elsewhere, the Department of Defense earmark list, mostly requests by senators, is 29 pages long and individual requests more often are worth $2 million to $5 million each. In that list, Inouye's requests total more than $159 million, including $21 million for a Hawaii Federal Health Care Network. Cornyn's defense spending earmarks total nearly $16 million."

Yes, I am sure that it is very important to pass for Inouye to get $150 million dollars through. Otherwise, fiscal responsibility would take over.

Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has the story and these words of advice for Republican lawmakers: "Use every procedural device available to run out the clock on the monstrosity that is the current Congress. The voters who gave Republicans back the House and closed the gap in the Senate expect the current Republican leadership and Republicans in the Senate to do no less in the face of more Harry Reid cramdowns."

Pat at And So it Goes in Shreveport also has the story. She's taken on the challenge of reading through the bill's nearly 2,000 pages. And she is livid at what she's finding.

For those of you with the patience and constitution to try to wade through this mess, the bill is available to read here. Best of luck.