By Newt Gingrich
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. Last night Senator Harry Reid decided to pull the plug on a $1.2 trillion pork-filled spending bill after realizing that he did not have the votes to pass it. The legislation which is an annual appropriations bill to keep government offices funded contained close to 7000 earmarks and was a clear attempt to blackmail Republicans with a shutdown of the government if they didnt support their big-spending special interest giveaway.
This is a clear victory for all American taxpayers who voted in droves in November to reject big government big spending policies.
And its a victory that was only made possible through the efforts of people like you who called your Senators and
told them to say enough to pork-filled legislation.
Reid has agreed to a simple continuation of current funding levels until February when the new Congress can develop new legislation that keeps the government open

and omits the pork barrel spending that the proposed omnibus had.
But the Lame Duck Congress is still ignoring the mandate from the American people on numerous other issues not the least of which is the Senates consideration of the New START Treaty with the Russians.
Americans are uninterested in having their Senators ratify a controversial treaty and then leave town without any accountability and this is certainly no way to consider a binding international agreement that weakens our self-defense and further empowers Russia.