Huge omnibus bills should be a LAST resort, never the first choice.
But for the Congress of today, whenever any big, multifaceted problem is encountered, the FIRST RESORT... is to create a legislative Swiss Army Knife to fix it.
It's not that Swiss Army Knife legislation has any great history of success. Remember how urgent it was to pass "comprehensive Immigration legislation"? Passing everything at once was such an urgent priority that they didn't pass a darn thing!
Another perfect example of Swiss Army Knife legislation is the Stimulus Bill (massive, hard-drive-filling, 647-page PDF) as passed by the House. I mean, it's got it all-- the nail clippers, the file, the saw, the scissors, the can opener-- but is it a good can opener? do we need a can opener in this situation? and if so, why did we not try to pass a good, standalone can opener first?
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