Instead of reducing the number of earmarks in the federal budget, the Omnibus bill increases the total to over 10,000 for 2008. Last year (for 2007) there were just 2,658.

• Earmarks: Instead of reducing the number of pork projects in the federal budget, the bill drives the number of earmarks up from last year. The bill contains over 8,000 earmarks, bringing the total for 2008 up to over 10,000 earmarks compared to just 2,658 in 2007.
• Spending Gimmicks: Instead of cutting wasteful spending out of the bill to bring its cost down to the President’s level, the bill uses budget tricks and gimmicks to hide at least $14 billion in extra domestic spending.
• Policy Riders: Instead of limiting the package to spending needed to fund government operations, the bill includes unrelated policy items. Many of these riders are backed by special interests, such as organized labor, and could not win passage on their own.

Wait, it gets better. The Heritage Foundation is tracking earmarks on its new blog “Omnibusting“. Here’s some of what they found:

Adding up all the earmarks in THUD, the total pork amount for one of 12 approps packages in the omnibus is:

$2,888,431,427

This number includes everything from $201,000 used to “clean and green” vacant land in Philadelphia to one million for “Bush Creek Beautifulcation” to 215 million for 2nd Ave subway improvements in NYC.

Oh, and Clinton’s hippie museum? It’s baaaaack!

 The mammoth appropriations bill now being considered by Congress contains a gift for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), though it’s a politically hot one that she may want to keep the receipt for.

A small provision reverses a decision the Senate had earlier made to block funding for a “Hippie Museum,” as it became known, in Bethel, New York, near Woodstock. The bill doesn’t specifically earmark funds for the museum, but re-opens the possibility that it could be funded if a federal agency chose to.

Senator Clinton isn’t telling you to fund it per say, but she’s saying you’re now allowed to and it’d keep you in her good favors. How long before the grand opening?

20% of the entire bill, or 696 pages, are comprised entirely of earmarks. One of my favorite:

Included in the omnibus is $1.95 Million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York (Joint Explanatory Statement, Labor-H, p. 234).

Currently the City College of New York does not have a Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service. Its website shows 16 centers of study, none of which contain Rep. Rangel’s name. These funds would therefore go toward naming a center after Mr. Rangel at a future date, as well as an endowment, library, and archives.

Heh. Via Ace.