Reid wants to force spending down taxpayers' throats - but Coburn says No!

An unprecedented showdown is currently developing in the U.S. Senate, where Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla) has been blocking a series of bills to protect taxpayers from their passage under a unanimous consent rule. Sen. Reid thinks this is scandalous, and has lumped 36 of those bills into one big and ugly omnibus bill - a bill that would authorize roughly $11.3 billion in federal spending (and much of it new spending, for that matter).

Coburn's office points out that the Reid Omnibus creates at least 34 programs, many of which are duplicative or wasteful - and, really, the term 'monkey business' is not too far off when you consider that Captive Primates Safety Act (S. 1498) is also part of the omnibus. As a reminder, that bill would make it illegal to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase nonhuman primates - clearly a priority at a time when taxpayers struggle to pay their grocery and gas bills.

In any case, Sen. Reid tried to introduce the bill yesterday (again, this omnibus is unprecedented in size, scope and procedure) but his attempt was answered by Sen. Coburn with his own uncommon procedural response, in which he objected the introduction of the bill - ultimately postponing it for one legislative day.

Sen. Coburn rightfully argues that the programs and bills in this omnibus should at a minimum debated on their own merits, and new spending commitments should be offset through spending cuts in other areas.

However, Sen. Reid does not seem to care: He is telling taxpayers to "say ahh" in an effort to force feed these programs down their throats. Thankfully Sen. Coburn will have none of it, and his colleagues should join him in opposing Sen. Reid's effort.