Here's a thought -- read the damn bill !!!

First, an under-reported story from last week outlined how a provision in the Omnibus spending bill known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment prohibits federally funded researchers from creating their own embryonic stem cell lines. This has now been enacted into law when Obama signed the bill. Regardless of your position on stem cell research, the conflict between Obama's reversal of Bush's executive order and his enacting of the Dickey-Wicker amendment into law looks like amateur hour.

Now we learn that the stimulus bill specifically protected the AIG bonuses that have stirred faux outrage on Capitol Hill. However, nobody seems to know how that amendment got into the bill. And despite assurance from the White House that they would be able to account for every penny, there now comes a denial of any knowledge of such a provision prior to this weekend.

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest ... read the bill and you might know what's in it. Or maybe that's the problem; and why the White House is trying to ram its agenda through before people can figure it out.