We're getting reports that the White House has drawn up a "continuing resolution" that keeps the government funded if Congress, which it won't, has not passed all appropriations bills by October 1st. The CR would set funding at the lower of either the Senate or House-passed versions of each annual appropriations bills. This CR format will wreak havoc in programs that are funded by an appropriations bill that has passed at least one chamber. Congress used the same format last year to drastically cut many programs .

The transparent inadequacies of the new House rule on earmarks disclosure are enumerated in a powerful Washington Post editorial today. Noting the insufficency of disclosure, the modesty of the rule's scope and the Senate's to failure to act at all, the editorial concludes:

Columnist Allan Sloan has come out in favor of deficit figures that show the long-term consequences of our spend now-pay later fiscal policy. Today, on Marketplace: SCOTT JAGOW: We're less than two weeks from the end of the government's fiscal year and it looks like the federal budget deficit will come in about 20 percent smaller than last year, around $260 billion. Or it could be twice that amount if you do the math the way Newsweek's Allan Sloan does it. ALLAN SLOAN: $558 billion dollars, give or take a few buck for rounding errors.

As Congress nears its target adjournment date of Sept. 29, the odds of its passing more than a small handful of the outstanding FY 2007 spending bills are lengthening. Congressional procrastination means that passage of a continuing budget resolution will be necessary to keep the government operating when the 2007 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, followed by a (probably lame-duck) omnibus spending package comprising appropriations bills uncompleted before the end of the year. These conference reports and omnibus packages are notorious vehicles for feather-bedding earmarks.