PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Mark Tapscott reports:

OK, maybe miracle is a stretch but something rare and needed has occurred on Capitol Hill in the past day. Senate and House negotiators agreed last night on a 2006 $142 billion HHS-Education Appropriation bill that has no earmarks, or pork barrel projects.

Is that progress? Well, the 2005 HHS-Education Appropriation bill contained nearly a billion dollars worth of pork.

He suspects that it’s a trick, with pork simply relocated to other bills yet to come. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The House voted against the pork-free conference report. In an update, Tapscott notes:

On the GOP side, 209 voted for the conference report, 22 voted with 201 Democrats and Bernie Sanders against the report. Not a single Democrat voted for the report. Looks like “GOP-led House” is a thing of the past. This is the reverse of the 1960s when coalitions of Republicans and conservative Democrats were a major road block to liberal proposals for more government programs.

Jeez.