What else is slipping through? It's amazing what the government tries to get away with. Somehow, a provision was slipped into the spending bill that allowed two committee chairmen to view the tax returns of any American!

Obviously these types of provisions have been hidden within large bills forever and is the cause for ridiculous governement spending. I'd like to say that it's solely a Republican problem, but the Dems are at fault as well. But now that the Republicans have almost complete power in all the areas of government, they have the opportunity to truely change the broken system of earmarks and pork and revive the line item vetos.

...Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the episode points up the problems created when Congress passes gigantic spending bills at the end of a session, before anyone has time to read them.

"If there is ever a graphic example of the broken system that we now have, that certainly has to be it," the Arizona Republican said on NBC's "Meet The Press." "How many other provisions didn't we find in that 1,000-page bill?"...

Well, John... why don't you and all the Republicans fix it?

CNN.com - Frist: Tax-returns measure indefensible - Nov 21, 2004  ¶ 11:01 AM