Funding for the regular operations of most of the government was running out late last week, and a bill to finish out the fiscal year was heading to final passage. But there were upwards of 9,000 earmarks in that bill, and that didn’t sit right with a lot of people. (Last fall, Congress funded the government on a temporary basis, through March 6th.)

All those earmarks are something President Obama pledged to get rid of, but not this time. So Senate conservatives took up the anti-earmark banner and prevented passage of the omnibus spending bill on Friday.

Instead, Congress passed another short-term spending bill. H.J. Res. 38 funded the federal government through next Wednesday, the 11th. By then, Congress must figure out what to do with the earmark thing and get a bill passed to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year September 30th.

What does all this mean to you and me? In H.J. Res. 38, Congress spent about $100 per U.S. family to keep the government running through Wednesday. The omnibus spending bill, H.R. 1105, now comes in at about $4,090 per U.S. family.

Here’s a review of what’s been going on in the spending department. A quick summary: It’s a mess.