Both parties do this following an election that turns the party from one to another. This is why its called "Lame Duck". Saying that both parties are doing the same Democrats knew if they put a surprise spending bill of 1.2 trillion dollars with over 6,000 earmarks that they were basically going to shut down the government. The democratic lead house still fighting today over the taxation on the death tax after Obama called them personally and told them not to hold this up is killing the time in congress. All of these items should of been done before the election but democrats did not want to vote on them before the election. So both parties are playing partisan BS to get home for Christmas and to get to the next senate.