Democrats' Spending Spree

Tonight the House will vote on a massive spending package. As the majority has failed to accomplish their goals on many fronts (a good thing for taxpayers) they have also failed to pass all of the appropriations bills separately and so they are giving it a shot with an appropriations omnibus.

Despite media confusion, the spending package does not meet the level set by the president: due to budgeting gimmicks, over 9,000 earmarks, and just plain reckless spending, the bill comes in over $24 billion higher than the president's request.

Check out who else is weighing in:

Sen. DeMint sees through the gimmicks and 696 pages of earmarks: "I’m sure Democrats will try to ram this down our throats before anyone can read it, but we should do everything we can to stop them. I know many in Congress are anxious to get home for the holidays but we have a responsibility to stop wasteful Washington spending and protect American taxpayers,” said Senator DeMint.

Rep. Hensarling uses the RSC blog to give his thoughts on how the bill is bad for taxpayers: "This debate is really about two different fiscal roads. One road leads us to the largest tax increase in American history to be followed by an even larger tax increase, which would threaten our children and grandchildren with a lower standard of living. The other road is the path to fiscal responsibility. It is a path to make sure that the Federal budget does not grow beyond the ability of the American family budget to pay for it. To accomplish that, the government – like all American families – must live within a budget and this omnibus bill doesn’t get us there. "

Heritage has the earmark count at 11,402 for FY 2008.