There appears to be great consternation -- as noted on the editorial pages of this nation -- about the size of the omnibus budget bill the Harper Conservatives are about to dump on Parliament.

It is purported to be hernia inducing, great news for Toronto's Shouldice Clinic but bad news for slow learners and fine-tooth combers.

We understand the concern.

As we recently stated here in a public letter of advice to NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a comfortable majority in the Commons, and therefore a dictator's ability to table a budget bill so large that would take a fork lift to move.

He can do what he wants.

The omnibus bill tabled last March was a mammoth 400 pages in length and, while it took a long time to get through it, it will take twice as long to get through the upcoming one -- if, indeed, it is twice the size.

But is this necessary?

If we are to believe Tory House Leader Peter Van Loan, the new omnibus bill will be bloated with changes to such things as police powers and immigration law -- all of which are not real budget items.

So why not cut that from the herd so that ordinary Canadians can more easily digest the issue at hand?

Why not set aside such important law-and-order issues -- like terrorism, bogus immigration, extraditions -- and place them in separate legislation instead of burying them deep in a massive document further complicated by eye-glazing amounts of fine print?

This is not giving the opposition an easier ride. It's giving the Canadian public a less complicated look.

Budget bills are supposed to be budget bills, speaking to taxation, bottom lines, cost projections and little else.

But those days were taken away.

In 1994, the Liberal government of Jean Chretien, flush with a majority, introduced a precedent-setting omnibus bill that not only implemented that year's budget, but also tried to amend several other laws at once.

It was a young Reform MP named Stephen Harper who tried to get that bill split up, arguing Chretien was passing a bunch of laws that had nothing to do with each other.

Perhaps he has forgotten.