Joe Blow Citizens, academic researchers, bloggers and journalists who want to read and study the new $410 billion Omnibus spending bill can do so, but good luck finding anything on any specific topic any time soon. The version posted online by the House Rules Committee is a non-searchable scanned image version.
This is called “slow-walking,” a technique for preventing something from being done by making it so laborious that only a few demented souls will stay it through. And by then it won’t matter.
The same thing happened with the House version of the economic stimulus bill. A non-searchable version was first posted, then later replaced by a searchable version, but much valuable time was lost in the effort to understand what the politicians were doing before they did it.
So, remember this quote from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi back during the 2006 congressional campaign? “Democrats will create the most open and honest government in history, and put power back where it belongs – in the hands of all the people.” Her credibility on this issue is receding more rapidly than a Maine Republican senator can forget what the Grand Ole Party stands for.
By the way, there are an estimated 9,000 earmarks in the bill, worth about $5 billion, according to a McClatchy Newspapers analysis. And it doesn’t look like we’re going to get any names of the sponsors of those earmarks, contrary to repeated promises by Pelosi and company.
A source on Capitol Hill says an analysis of date stamps on some of the documents in the Omnibus indicate earmarks were being put into the text nearly a month ago. So it’s not like Congress hasn’t had time to make this stuff public. Maybe that’s because the initial reviewers are finding earmarks for things like:
* $5.8 million for the “Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate… for the planning and design of a building & an endowment.”
* $473,000 for the National Council of LaRaza for unspecified purposes. Maybe just another way for congressional Democrats to say “thank you” for LaRaza’s help?
* A $95,000 earmark to “combat obesity.” Perhaps Congress might consider starting the effort by giving up earmarks? Right. Fat chance.
And speaking of quotes on the importance of transparency, check this one out: “The casual dishonesty of hiding irresponsible spending with clever accounting tricks, the costly overruns, the fraud and abuse, the endless excuses. This is exactly what the American people rejected when they went to the polls. They sent us here to usher in a new era of responsibility in Washington, to start living within our means again and being straight with them about where their tax dollars are going.”
Can you guess who said that? It was President Barack Obama blasting Bush administration budgeting gimmicks earlier today at his economic summit. Poltiico has more details.
You think anybody in the Mainstream Media will have the cojones to ask Obama why his words could not be applied with equal relevance and precision to the actions of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in writing the economic stimulus bill’ conference report behind closed doors last week?
Nah.
Posted by Mark Tapscott
