... might not mean much.

• Position: EDITORIAL - Editorial

COLUMN: IN OUR OPINION

The brighter side to last week's congressional action was the withdrawal of the $1.27 trillion spending bill, into which Democrats and Republicans alike shoved every conceivable variety of spending in the name of keeping the federal government open for business. Here, too, political doublespeak and hypocrisy was on full display, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, scrambled to kill legislation to which he himself had added several layers of insulation.

The spending plan's apologists were quick to point out that the bill's more than 6,000 earmarks accounted for "only" $8 billion, as if an 8 followed by nine zeros meant almost nothing.

Here in Massachusetts, those earmarks would have amounted to $213 million for 174 projects, including $8 million for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate, $5 million for a Boston University study to address emerging threats from chemical and nuclear weapons, $12.5 million for a Fitchburg company to develop a hybrid electric...