EJ Dionne says the biggest thing wrong with the Democrats is that they haven't been good at blaming Republicans for causing legislative gridlock. What's the alternative to internecine Democratic finger-pointing of the sort that made the front page of yesterday's Post? The party's congressional leaders need to do whatever they have to do to put this year behind them. Then they need to stop whining. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should put aside any ill feelings and use the Christmas break to come up with a joint program for 2008.

Perhaps it's too soon to write a post-mortem on the budget debate. Particularly because the Coalition on Human Needs just put out a good summary of how the Bush cuts would impact people, and since they're asking for advocates to call Congress in support of human needs programs.

OMB has launched their website that will comply with the 2006 Coburn-Obama Federal Funding, Accountability, and Transparency Act (Transparency Act) today. You can visit it at www.usaspending.gov. OMB really needs to be commended for this site, for launching it two weeks before required under the legislation, and for their commitment to transparency. For those of you who haven't been to the BudgetBlog before or have, but are still sleepy this morning, you might not notice that the government's website looks an awful lot like FedSpending.org, the site we launched in October, 2006. Well, that's because it basically is FedSpending.org, with a few design changes. As the Washington Post reported this morning, OMB Watch licensed FedSpending.org to OMB for use in compliance with the law (btw, the article is a great insight into the collaboration we've had with OMB over the past year). We will continue to operate FedSpending.org and add more advanced features that make the site easier to use and the data easier to understand. And we hope with a solid foundation, OMB will be able to make timely and eventually more accurate data available to the public through USASpending.gov. Currently, there are difference between the sites. For instance, OMB will have more timely data as they plan to update the site every two weeks with new data (we currently update data twice a year). In addition, the government site does not have features and upgrades added to FedSpending.org in our last version release, including a mapping feature on all searches, creation of a streamlined and powerful SuperSearch for all advanced searching needs, and increased flexibility in getting data more quickly through expandable summary views. I have been continually surprised and proud of the success of our endevor to make Federal spending information more available and understandable to the public through FedSpending.org. For it to now be the model for the government's efforts to do the same is feels even better.

Two developments yesterday that are impacting the 2007 congressional end game this month. First, Democrats appear to have reached a deal (i.e. caved) on FY 2008 appropriations: From BNA ($): Democratic leaders agree in principle to try to meet President Bush's proposed spending target for the 2008 fiscal year, potentially setting aside one of the main stumbling blocks to a deal to wrap up a drawn-out fight over appropriations. However, the bill may not come up for consideration until next week. Despite the major concession by Democrats, other potential issues that could hinder a final agreement—short-term funding for the war in Iraq and various policy provisions—appear unresolved and a short-term continuing resolution is expected, to keep the government funded through Dec. 21 Also, the House has passed another fully paid-for, one-year AMT patch. Also from BNA ($): The House, in defiance of the White House and Senate, passes a second revenue-neutral patch for the AMT, but also—for the second time—fails to secure a veto-proof margin. The bill passes by 226-193, with three Democrats crossing party lines to vote with Republicans in opposition to the bill. So it looks right now that President Bush is getting his way on making cuts to important domestic investments that will negatively impact millions of Americans but make no difference in promoting fiscal responsibility and also may also get his way in actively opposing long-term fiscal responsibility by forcing Congress to pass another $50 billion tax cut that will add to the debt. It's dark times in Washington these days. Happy Holidays!