If you haven't been over to the
TAPPED Weblog lately, please check out big media Matt's entry as well as Nick Confessore's comments on the Ominibus bill.
I find it interesting that this note worthy item is on the bill as per Matt's post: There's little to like and much to dislike -- notably, an effort to deny large numbers of workers overtime pay -- in this pork-fest.
I should think that such a bill, doing away with overtime pay would be the nail in Bush's corporate favortism coffin. If such policy really were to past into law, it seems to me that it would be a particular unpopular bill for Americans at large. Bush and the White House are FOR this part of the bill and believe me, it's not as if this bill is only for white-collar workers, blue-collar workers will find this bill means them just as well.
This bill is a Republican Bill and Sen. Frist try to sneak this bill past the Democrats as Findlaw columnist John Dean explained in one of his recent articles. Please read this article as it explains a lot about what is really going on in congress these days. The Ominous Omnibus Appropriations Bill
And as Nick Confessore points out in his commentary: The Washington Times makes much of this recent announcement by several conservative groups that are tired of the GOP spending like drunken sailors.
And than this: It takes a truely principled small-government ideologue to resist such temptations. And judging from the polls, grassroots small-government conservatives aren't that principled. As David Brooks pointed out recently, polls show President Bush with a 91% approval rating among Republicans.
I believe there are more conservatives who are actually worried about this than beats the eye, since the passing of that 87 billion for Iraq and Bush's new Immigration Plan AND because things can change a lot between now and November 2004, Howard Dean would be wise to stop calling Wes Clark a Republican.