Two days after unveiling a 1,924 page earmark-filled Omnibus Budget plan, Democrats last night pulled the plug on the massive budget bill, sparking an hour of bitter exchanges on the Senate floor.

What most people probably don't realize is that the Omnibus bill was the product of months of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee, all of which had the backing of Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Overall, Republican Senators have gotten nearly $2 billion in earmarks into the omnibus, and yet because of concerns over “wasteful spending,” they are threatening to block the entire bill — which contains not only funding for their own projects, but the money the federal government needs to operate past this weekend.

Democrats in Congress prepared on Thursday for a high-stakes game of chicken over spending as they moved toward a weekend vote that, if it fails, could lead to a shutdown of wide swaths of the U.S. government.

With current funding due to expire at midnight on Saturday, Democrats set aside tentative plans to keep the government running if they do not pass a permanent spending bill by then.

So, instead of a funding bill that would keep the government running through the end of the current fiscal year, Congress will likely approve a short-term extension into February or March.

That was favored by Republicans, because it will allow them to start cutting federal budgets right away, not in the following fiscal year.

Only time will tell if the GOP will be able to get cuts both through the House, through the Senate, and signed into law.

Earmarks are essentially the directing of funds already allocated in the budget to specific projects. If the earmarked money isn't spent on the earmark, it will be spent on something else, because it's already in the budget. The earmark gives a congressperson more control over how that already allocated money is spent. It actually gives power back to the states via the Congressperson that the state voted to represent them.

Of course, that hasn't stopped politicians like Jim DeMint (R-SC) from grandstanding on the issue and trying to ban them. It may resonate well with voters who are under the mistaken impression that it will save money and reign in government spending, but it is actually self-defeating for the Congress.

Rather than simply speculate whether Paul is correct or not, we have a recent historical occurrence to look to for guidance: the federal government shutdown of 1995. During the nearly four-week shutdown, Social Security checks were not mailed, nor were Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements sent out. All non-essential government employees were sent home without pay. And according to a Center for American Progress report entitled “The Big Freeze”, the entire ordeal “cost the American taxpayer over $800 million and rattled the confidence of international investors in U.S. government bonds.”