“Well, we all know what most of our senators are having for Christmas… pork.

“The Omnibus spending bill will cost us over a trillion dollars, is nearly 2000 pages long, and is filled with over 6,000 earmarks. So I compiled a list of Senators, their party affiliation, and how many earmarks they placed in this spending bill.”

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“The Obama administration today told Congress to pass an omnibus spending bill containing $8 billion in earmark projects, even though just a few days ago the president said one of the lessons he learned from the 2010 midterm elections was to take more seriously the public’s disapproval of – and his pledge to oppose — earmarks.

“‘We wish there were no earmarks and are troubled with their presence’ in the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill, an administration source told ABC News. ‘But Secretary Gates has told the President that the alternative bill’ – a continuing resolution that for one year funds the government, which is due to run out of cash at the end of the week – ‘doesn’t have the funding critical for several national security priorities.’…

“At his press conference after the shellacking, the president said that upon taking office, ‘we were in such a hurry to get things done that we didn’t change how things got done. And I think that frustrated people.’

“The president said he’s “a strong believer that the earmarking process in Congress isn’t what the American people really want to see when it comes to making tough decisions about how taxpayer dollars are spent. And I, in the rush to get things done, had to sign a bunch of bills that had earmarks in them, which was contrary to what I had talked about. And I think folks look at that and they said, ‘Gosh, this feels like the same partisan squabbling, this seems like the same ways of doing business as happened before.’ And so one of the things that I’ve got to take responsibility for is not having moved enough on those fronts.'”

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“The 1,924-page omnibus spending bill unveiled yesterday by Senate Democrats is the legislative equivalent of a middle finger, one that reminds us of how richly the Democrats deserved the shellacking visited upon them on Election Day. Rather than pass a simple “continuing resolution” to fund government operations through early 2011, Harry Reid & Co. decided to ignore the backlash against fiscal profligacy and let their pork barons run wild. The result is an orgy of earmarks, rolled out two weeks after most Senate Republicans and seven Senate Democrats voted for a temporary earmark moratorium…

“Remember: This is a lame-duck Congress. Trying to enact such a bloated agenda — let alone a highly partisan one — within such a narrow post-election time frame insults the voters and shows utter disrespect for the democratic process. The omnibus is bad enough. The fact that Reid also wants to rush through debate on whether to ratify a deeply flawed arms-control pact and whether to change U.S. policy toward gay servicemen shows that he has no real interest in giving these issues their proper treatment. For reasons of timing and legitimacy, New START and ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ should be the business of the next Congress.

“If the Democrats are dead set on embarrassing themselves by ending the year in a blaze of ignominy, that’s their choice. But Republicans should oppose this travesty with all their might.”

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“Think of this as a political version of the final scene in ‘Animal House,’ when the boys from the Delta frat react to their expulsion by busting up the local town parade for the sheer mayhem of it. Bluto Blutarsky (John Belushi) did go on to be a U.S. Senator in the film, and a man of his vision must have earned a seat on Appropriations.

“Democrats have had 11 months to write a budget for fiscal 2011, which began on October 1. But Majority Leader Harry Reid and Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye have dumped this trillion-dollar baby on Senators at the very last minute, when everyone is busy and wants to go home for the holidays. No doubt that was the plan. The continuing resolution to fund the government expires on Saturday, so Mr. Reid wants to squeeze Senators against the deadline. And with the press corps preoccupied by the tax debate, the spending bill is greased to slide through with little or no public scrutiny…

“The 111th Congress has shown contempt for taxpayers from its first day, which is why it was so repudiated on November 2 and why Gallup found this week that Congress’s approval rating has hit a record low of 13%. Which raises the question: Who are those 13%? At least ‘Animal House’ was funny.”

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