With less than ten days to go before the beginning of the new fiscal year, Congress hasn’t passed a single annual spending bill. Only last week, the second of twelve bills was introduced in the House. Not passed – introduced. The Senate, at least, has seen nine bills introduced, though it hasn’t passed any.

(Follow the annual budget and spending process here.)

Even before the current crisis, Congress was angling to determine spending levels for the 2009 fiscal year in a careless, ad hoc way.

Many of my friends in the government transparency movement focus on earmark reform, and it does represent the flagrant parochialism at play in politics. But earmarks are a small part of federal budget. The problems with government management are far bigger and far deeper.

If Congress spends $700 billion this week on a financial services bailout, at least we’ll know where that money went. Before the month is out, Congress will spend hundreds of billions more on heaven-knows-what.

The start of the new fiscal year is not a surprise to anyone, but Congress didn’t follow its own budget and spending processes and has created a spending mess to go along with the financial crisis.

Your Congress at work. You’re paying for it.