OK, settle down people. The so-called "bloated with pork" statement, provided by the media and repeated by everyone else, is not completely accurate.

Civics lesson: All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, and then be sent to the Senate. Anyone remember that from high school? When the US House rejected the bailout bill last week, the Senate could not legally pass it. So, what the Senate did was modify it slightly (to satisfy House members' original complaints), and pass it. To legally do anything with it, they then attached it to a routine annual tax/spending bill that had ALREADY been passed by the House. By attaching it to the House bill, they could then legally send the whole thing back to the House for the House to vote on the Senate's version, and get the whole thing approved.

All the stuff about wooden arrows, etc had already been voted on and approved a month ago, without anybody complaining. It was just awaiting routine approval by the Senate. It was a Constitutionally-required parliamentary maneuver to attach this bailout bill to the House's bill, just so the Senate could approve it and break the logjam on the Capitol.

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