Congress passes spending bill averting shutdown
Harry Reid, Barack Obama and John Boehner
/ CBA/APThe House and Senate on Thursday passed a spending bill to fund the federal government for the remaining six months of the fiscal year, agreeing to the compromise plan worked out late Friday night to avert a government shutdown.
The House vote was not a slam dunk: Fifty-nine House Republicans bucked their leadership and voted against the bill, which cuts about $38 billion in government spending. Eighty-one Democrats joined the GOP majority to pass the measure. The bill passed the House by a vote of 260 to 167, with three Democrats and three Republicans not voting.
In the Senate, meanwhile, the bill passed overwhelmingly, by a vote of 81 to 19. Fifteen Republicans and four Democrats voted no. President Obama plans to sign the bill into law before the government runs out of money on Friday.
The White House hailed the deal in a statement, saying that "we must build on this bipartisan compromise to tackle these issues and meet the expectations of the American people."
Before the vote, House Speaker John Boehner appealed to members of his party to support the deal, which he negotiated last week with Mr. Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Boehner argued on the House floor that the budget represented simply the initial step toward "making the fundamental changes to put our nation back on the path to prosperity." The speaker was alluding to the upcoming House vote on the GOP's proposed 2012 budget, which aims to slash government spending by about $6 trillion over the next 10 years.
In spite of Boehner's appeals, some prominent Republicans voted against the measure, including Rep. Jim Jordan, head of the conservative Republican Study Committee. They complained it did not cut enough spending.
Tea Party linked Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said he voted against the bill because it doesn't go far enough.
"Our debt here is going to double in the next ten years," he said. "We have to start solving it now. We can't wait any longer. We're running out of time. And this deal just doesn't do it. In fact, it's full of a bunch of typical Washington, D.C. gimmicks. I'm just not going to be a part of that."
What's in the budget bill?
Forget $38B: Budget only cuts $352 million this year
Confusion and consternation over the size of the bill's spending cuts increased today in the wake of a report showing that the legislation would only bring about a reduction of $352 million in non-war government spending for the rest of this fiscal year. The bill does, as Washington leaders say, cut about $38 billion from government spending authority. Yet those cuts do not go into effect immediately.
Furthermore, as government officials explained today, while it cuts about $38 billion in spending authority, the bill will only cut about $20-$25 billion in actual spending over the next four to five years. That's because some of the cuts in budget authority related to money that was never expected to be spent.
For instance, Congress allotted more than $20 million necessary to build the Capitol Visitor Center at the U.S. Capitol building. The visitor center is now completed, but the U.S. Capitol still is technically owed the rest of its budget for that project. The budget deal the House votes on today takes back $15 million from that project.
The level of cuts is nevertheless historically significant, and some conservatives in the House agreed with Boehner that the bill was a good first step toward fiscal austerity.
"The bill we consider today cuts real money," Republican Rep. Jeff Landry of Louisiana said. "Do I think the cuts are big enough? No. But my mother used to warn me about being a penny wise and pound foolish."
Several Democrats complained the cuts went too far; 108 Democrats voted against the measure, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
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Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said on the House floor that the budget "reflects the status quo on special interest waste."
"At almost every turn of this [legislation] the majority has chosen to keep special interest giveaways" such as subsidies to oil companies, she said. She complained that it cut education and infrastructure spending as well as biomedical research and food safety.
"The American people expect better of us," she said. "They want our budget to reflect commonsense, mainstream priorities."
The bill's cuts include: $700 million from safe drinking-water programs, $390 from heating subsidies, $276 from flu-prevention programs and $390 from emergency heating assistance directed toward low-income families. It also targets the Environmental Protection Agency, which would lose $1.6 billion under the plan, and the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
As part of the compromise deal, votes were held earlier Thursday on two stand-alone measures that would have defunded Planned Parenthood and withheld money to implement the health care law. Both measures failed.
House Republicans are expected to approve their controversial fiscal year 2012 budget, which includes significant cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, on Friday.
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Its true " as the world turns we have A day of our lives as shown in that patten Place called Washington DC.. between the battles of corperate exeuctives, Lobby groups, the appointees of the fed and officers of the various associations and Regulations groups its the largest soap opera that could be thought up and all taking their part of your tax dollar down the drain.. T party Republican Democrat Liberal or conservitive.. each with thier own direction for your dollar.. Thats is the blunt of it all..
Who are the biggest borrowers of money in america, the same people who brought overpriced stocks at the highet of the market back in 2007, the big investment banks, the big retail banks, the big hedge funds and investment companys. In other words the richest americans have created this debt problem from reckless borrowing to by assets that have fallen in value.
If they had been able to hold on to their investments they would not have lost all that much money, but because they were so highely leveraged they had to sell when the market crashed. Huge debts crippled the companys and the government bailed them out. The government took over the debt and now the same rich people are being given tax cuts so they can get even richer????
If the rich had a track record of looking after the country then I would understand the governments tendency to help them out, but all they have done in the last 30 years is look after themselves and to hell with the rest of us. Do we have a government by the people for the people or do we have a government by the rich for the rich?
Why not make the rich fend for themselves (they should be able to) instead of trying to force the disadvantaged people in our country to work harder pay up...
"Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims -- laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity, exploiting defenseless widows, taking advantage of homeless children. What will you have to say on Judgment Day, when Doomsday arrives out of the blue? Who will you get to help you? What good will your money do you?" (Isaiah 10:1-3)
Never was the truth more told.
P.s. My thanks to Rev. Jim Wallis on Sojourners for bringing this verse to my attention.
""""The White House hailed the deal in a statement, saying that "we must build on this bipartisan compromise to tackle these issues and meet the expectations of the American people """"
.......
sage d?cision, les querelles enfantines, n'ont pas de place quand il s'agit de l'inter?t du citoyen
..........
wise decision
childish quarrels, have no place when it comes to the interest of the citizen
" au revoir"
Cut wealfair to the rich and powerful. Let them fend for themselves, they should be able to.
Give money to the people who are helping those who are unable to help themselves. Anything else is maddness.
Everyone in the middle needs to be given a fair chance at getting ahead. If you work hard then you need to be rewarded, but not to the detrement of the country.