Let it never be said that the Washington Post’s Lori Montgomery can’t write a killer first sentence: “After getting blasted last week for presenting a budget plan light on details, House Republicans today unveiled a more complete proposal that would cut taxes for business and the wealthy, freeze most government spending for five years, halt spending approved in the economic stimulus package and slash federal health programs for the poor and elderly.” In other words, while last week’s version only included, say, “We will kill puppies,” this week’s adds, “We will kill 47 puppies.” [Washington Post]

This poor stimulus bill has been kicked around and blown up a million times, completely dismembered, bathed in acid — basically Robocop, except boring, and with money. So what secret provisions did House and Senate negotiators slip into the bill into order to win the eternal fealty of the lobster queen Susan Collins and the other handful of senators who hold the entire fate of the free world in their parsimonious little fists? MORE »

• CALIFORNIA’S TERRIBLE POLITICS, CONDENSED: “California’s budget mess got messier Thursday as Democratic legislators approved a package of tax increases and spending cuts, Republican legislators threatened to sue over the package’s questionable constitutionality and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made the issue moot by promising to veto it. Democratic legislative leaders then announced lawmakers are going home for the holidays.” Won’t it be fun in the next couple of years when no state in the country is able to put together a budget? By then, California will already have been given back to Spain. [Digby]

Mayor David Cohen of Newton, Massachusetts, one day after he “warned that his city might close library branches, reduce the police force, and cut services to seniors if voters reject a property tax increase,” has released a budget proposal that gives himself a 28% salary increase. The city council could reject it, if they enjoy THE TERRORISTS WINNING. [Boston Globe]