The Majority’s omnibus appropriations bill completes a trilogy of trillion-dollar actions by the 111th Congress: it follows a $1-trillion “stimulus” bill with another trillion dollars of discretionary spending, adding to a deficit that already exceeds a record one trillion dollars. As scored by the Congressional Budget Office [CBO], the $407.6-billion omnibus increases nonemergency discretionary spending by $29 billion, or 7.7 percent, compared with enacted levels for fiscal year 2008. That increase alone is several times greater than inflation (currently 0.03 percent) at a time when the U.S. economy is shrinking. But when combined with the three appropriations bills enacted under the regular order, the Majority has increased discretionary spending by $80 billion, or 8.6 percent, over the 2008 level.

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