"We've reached the bizarre point where we approve hundreds of billions of dollars of bills without anyone seeing them." Sen. John McCain.

The beginning of an article in today's New York Times entitled "In Congress, Growing Doubts on Spending Process:"

The power of the purse has always been the ultimate power of Congress. But the way Congress is exercising that power is causing a ruckus on Capitol Hill, where members of both parties say the system for financing the government is broken.

This year, for the third year in a row, lawmakers delayed passing spending bills until the very last minute, then rolled most of them into a catchall measure called an omnibus. This year's bill, which passed Saturday night, was a 3,300-page legislative behemoth - stuffed with special projects for lawmakers and an embarrassing provision that would have allowed Congressional aides to examine citizens' tax returns - delivered to lawmakers just hours before they voted on it.

Many confessed they had not read it.

"We've reached the bizarre point where we approve hundreds of billions of dollars of bills without anyone seeing them," Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said in an interview Tuesday. "And then we're shocked - shocked! - that a provision should sneak in which is onerous."