Earmark-laden omnibus bill taking taxpayers on a bad ride

See the salmon?

Omnibus, take all of us
All of us, take Omnibus
Omnibus, take all of us
XTC, "Omnibus," 1986.

The Democratic controlled Senate is taking all of us on a ride by peddling a 1,924 page omnibus spending bill loaded with over 6,000 earmarks.

Red State tells us that the taxpayers are getting bad gas mileage on this trip:

According to Sen. John McCain's office, the legislation includes 6,488 earmarks totaling nearly $8.3 billion. In a speech from the floor of the Senate, McCain blasted the bill, asking is his colleagues if they had been "stricken with amnesia."

"Enough with the spending, enough of mortgaging our children and our grandchildren's futures. The phenomenon of the Tea Party — taxed enough already — they were against the spending, the earmarking," McCain, who is looking to force the bill be read in its entirety from the floor of the Senate, said. "What is going on here? Are we tone deaf? Are we stricken with amnesia?"

The senator's aides — as well as the senator himself on Twitter — have begun circulating what they deem the most outrageous and wasteful spending measures in the bill. Some choice selects:

$247,000 - Virus free grapes in Washington State
$413,000 - Peanut research in Alabama
$125,000 - Fishery equipment for the Guam Fisherman's Cooperative Association
$349,000 - Swine waste management in North Carolina
$277,000 - Potato pest management in Wisconsin
$246,000 - Bovine tuberculosis in Michigan and Minnesota
$522,000 - Cranberry and blueberry disease
$500,000 - Oyster safety in Florida

There's more. Lex Luthor, who attempted to destroy California in Superman - The Movie so the desert real estate he owned would be transformed into valuable beachfront property, must have succeeded while I was looking elsewhere. In this bill, Harry Reid's Nevada becomes a Pacific state so it can collect funds to protect salmon.

Of this stink bomb bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says, "I am actively working to defeat it."

During the 2008 presidential campaign, both McCain and Obama denounced earmark spending.

Technorati tags: elections Politics Republican McConnell kentucky politics gop McCain John McCain Obama Barack Obama conservative tea party