Taxpayers for Common Sense

(Newser) - The earmark lives. Despite much public clamoring about lawmakers loading up budgets with expensive pet projects, not much changed this year: The domestic and defense budgets contain more than 11,000 such earmarks, the Washington Post reports. "It would take leadership in both parties—and a lot more shame—...

(Newser) - The White House last night won a major victory in the Senate—securing $70 billion in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, free of the restrictions linked to troop withdrawals Democrats had insisted on for weeks. In a budget deal that ended months of wrangling, the Senate passed...