BURNING BILLIONS behind closed doors: “For officials who came into office promising to operate the most honest and transparent White House and Congress ever, President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seem determined to achieve exactly the opposite result. . . . Less than 48 hours elapsed between the time the text of the compromise became available for public examination late Saturday evening and yesterday’s 61-37 vote for passage. At that rate, the Senate effectively was spending about $300 million every minute while considering the compromise, and allowing taxpayers a scandalously brief opportunity to discover how the senators were doing it. But even before the votes on final Senate passage were counted, Reid left a White House meeting with Obama and Pelosi yesterday morning promising to convene the conference committee as soon as possible and predicting the ‘minor differences’ between the two chambers’ bills would be worked out within 24 hours, with conferees working into the night.”