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The House of Representatives passed an omnibus spending bill which will cost the American taxpayers $410 billion dollars, an 8.3% increase ($32 billion) over last year’s (2008) funding levels. Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) opposed the measure which totaled more than 3,000 pages long with the committee report and included almost 8,000 earmarks.

“In just the past four weeks, Congress has approved over $1.5 Trillion in new spending, most of it borrowed and done through a closed process,” said Congressman Posey. “Now we’re considering a $410 billion omnibus bill and again, no member is allowed to offer changes. This is such an irresponsible way to spend taxpayer dollars.”

House leaders, who design the rules under which legislation comes to the floor, prohibited any member from offering amendments to the omnibus, forcing members to take it or leave it. Posey suggested that part of the problem was allowing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to be spent in omnibus form. “By rolling up nine departments into one gigantic omnibus spending bill, it’s almost as if those who put this legislation together don’t want folks to understand where the money is going.”