The House and Senate successfully passed their versions of the FY 2009 budget resolution yesterday. The House passed their spending outline on a mostly party-line vote 212 - 207 and the Senate passed their version early this morning 51 - 44 (roll call not available yet). Sixteen Democrats in the House opposed the budget along with all Republicans and in the Senate, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) supported the budget, while Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) opposed it.

In case it escaped your attention in perusing Craig's blog below, John McMaverick, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, lets slip a surprising sentiment: ... the facts are that I never showed any bias in any way against anybody — except for the taxpayer. -- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) And, for bipartisan measure: ... the facts are that I never showed any bias in any way against anybody — except for the taxpayer. .. I hope that senators of good will on both sides of the aisle will step forward and say, 'We have an obligation to our clients, um, to our constituents" [emph. added].

The Boston Globe: In letters to the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration, and the Labor Department, [House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry] Waxman, Democrat of California, questioned Blackwater's classification of its workers as independent contractors instead of employees. That designation, which the government has questioned in the past, allowed the company to obtain $144 million in contracts set aside for small businesses and avoid paying as much as $50 million in withholding taxes under State Department contracts, he said.

"Tragicomic" Obsession Giving Rise to Political Cannibalism With the budget resolution action for the week behind us, we are free to turn to attention again to an issue which for two years now has generated discussion and debate so disproportionate to its actual budgetary significance than it's possible we've moved over from mere obsession into the realm of fiscal fetishism: earmarks.