The reviews are in

The National Post editorial board remarkably takes both the Cons and Libs to task for their plan to pass Deficit Jim's budget without the slightest review of some of the included changes:

Once Ottawa gets over the cheap thrills provided by the Barack Obama visit, maybe somebody in town could get back to some real work, such as raising a little hell over the Harper government's 547-page budget gorilla. Bill C-10, a sweeping omnibus package, represents one of the greatest legislative railroad jobs in recent history...

(W)hether any of the changes are necessary or desirable, is beside the point. The fact is we will never know until it's too late, since Bill C-10 is subject to a confidence vote. As things now stand, the budget bill will get two days of cursory committee review next week, before it rolls down the track for instant ratification, with hardly a word of the massive text coming under review. Most of the words, in any case, are unreadable and incomprehensible without a team of lawyers.

So much for Stephen Harper's enthusiasm for greater democratic scrutiny and MP responsibility. So much, too, for Michael Ignatieff's highly publicized bid to force the government to submit the Harper fiscal stimulus regime to periodic review. The Liberals are willing to waste time in mock sword fights over macroeconomic mumbo-jumbo, but will spend no time on the substance of a budget bill that contains major changes to the corporate and financial legal system.