I would hope by now that most Americans are aware that the U.S. Senate is about to vote on an Omnibus Bill to fund that federal government. How many average citizens, do you suppose, know that this bill is a compilation of several bills, which Congress failed to deal with in a timely fashion?

The following is a list of the individual bills that were no put on the agenda by either the Speaker of the House or the Senate Majority Leader during the current legislative year, which will expire in 15 days:

The Individual Bills

The question to ask, then, is why were these important areas of government not addressed in a timely manner? Why did Congressional leaders ensure that time was available to discuss each fully? Why did they not allot sufficient time to evaluate the various programs and some their constituent components to ensure funding was or was not justified?

Were other items before the Congress more important than funding these agencies, or was the delay the result derived from a justifiable fear that the average voter might respond with hostility to the tremendous amount of spending called for by each bill? Is it now the general thinking in Congress that by delaying a bill to the last minute and forcing an uninformed vote, it becomes easier to hide amendments that deliver pork to individual states or pet projects that considered out in the open would not receive funding?

Congress now faces a 1924 page bill, stuffed with approximately 6,753 earmarks, dealing with the funding of 12 large, complex agency divisions. These same congressional leaders are hoping that the American people will buy into their false statement that failure to pass this bill will bring about an emergency and cause the government to shut down. Most American citizens, however, understand that a failure to plan and perform by one party does not constitute an emergency to be dealt with by other parties. While it is true that Democrats set the agenda in both houses of Congress and that this is clearly a situation of failure to perform as expected on the part of Congressional leaders, the blame does not fall on Democrats alone.

Republican leaders have remained silent throughout the year. They, like the Democrats were perfectly aware that these individual funding measures were running out of time for a rational, full and open debate on passage or amendment. Republicans (though far fewer than Democrats overall) also added earmarks to each of these bills hoping to hide them from deliberative scrutiny. Those same Republicans are, for the most part, claiming that they have seen the light of fiscal responsibility shown by the voters and the TEA party groups in particular, and that they are willing to pull those Amendments – some they claim were put in as long ago as two years.

These earmarks are estimated to cost the taxpayers as little as 8 billion dollars and as much as 9 billion in money we simply cannot afford to spend. The other significant failure of Congress is this – they have not yet prepared and agreed to a budget for 2011. Without a budget, how can they possibly determine how much to spend or not spend on these individual programs. I know of no individual who comes to a budget total by determining how much they wish to spend before determining how much they expect to earn first. But, this is the United States Congress and they know more about such things than those they are sworn to represent. If you do not believe me, just ask them.

Some Pork Spending Amendments

This is enough to bring a tear to your eye. If you don’t want a flatter wallet, pick up the telephone and call your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator and tell them to vote this bill down, vote for a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government, and to do their jobs or face termination when they come up for reelection. If this is too much for you to do, don’t come here looking for sniveler’s sympathy.