Massive Spending Bill Passes Congress

Obama To Sign $410 Billion Measure Wednesday; Earmarks Criticized

(CBS/AP)  Congress on Tuesday cleared a $410 billion measure to fund the government, one denounced by most Republicans as an example of reckless spending. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill Wednesday.

The Senate approved the measure by voice after it cleared a key procedural hurdle by a 62-35 vote. Sixty votes were required to shut down debate.

Obama will sign the bill Wednesday, the White House said, but he will also announce steps aimed at curbing lawmakers' penchant for pet projects.

The $410 billion bill is chock-full of lawmakers' pet projects, along with significant increases in food aid for the poor, energy research and other programs. It was supposed to have been completed last fall.

The bill ran into an unexpected political hailstorm in Congress, coming on the heels of Obama's spending-heavy economic stimulus bill and his 2010 budget plan forecasting a $1.8 trillion deficit for the current budget year. Republicans seized on Obama's willingness to sign a bill packed with pet projects after he assailed them as a candidate.

"If it had not been for the stimulus and the budget proposal it might have been ... noncontroversial," said House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio. "The stimulus bill riled an awful lot of people up. ... And then the budget proposal comes out."

Within Democratic ranks, there was relief, not jubilation.

The 1,132-page spending bill has an extraordinary reach, wrapping together nine spending bills to fund the annual operating budgets of every Cabinet department except for Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

Described by lawmakers as a $410 billion measure - but officially tallied by the Congressional Budget Office at $408 billion because of technicalities involving heating subsidies for the poor - the bill was written mostly over the course of last year, with support from key Republicans such as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Senate's No. 3 Republican.

They sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee. McConnell is the successful sponsor or co-sponsor of $76 million worth of pet projects, known as "earmarks," not requested by former President George W. Bush, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. Alexander obtained a more modest 36 earmarks totaling $32 million.

Alexander supported the measure in the end; McConnell did not.

But bipartisan support for the bill evaporated after projected deficits quadrupled and Obama's economic recovery bill left many of the same spending accounts swimming in cash. Congressional aides say the true cost is closer to $410 billion once heating subsidies for the poor passed last year are included.

Some Republicans noted that the government has been functioning just fine for more than five months at last year's funding levels.

"Why not go back to 2008 levels," said Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. "That would be a responsible action that might start giving confidence to the American people."

At issue is the approximately one-third of the budget passed each year by Congress for the operating budgets of Cabinet departments and other agencies. The rest of the budget is comprised of benefits programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - as well as interest payments on the swelling $11 trillion national debt.

Adding in spending bills passed last year for defense, homeland security and the Veterans Administration - as well as $288.7 billion in appropriated money in the stimulus bill - total appropriations so far for 2009 have reached $1.4 trillion. And that's before the Pentagon submits another $75 billion or so request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Appropriated spending for 2008 was $1.2 trillion; Obama's budget for next year calls for $1.3 trillion in appropriations.

Democrats had long feuded with Bush over domestic appropriations levels and stopped action on the nine bills last year, gambling that Obama would win the election and restore hundreds of cuts proposed by Bush.

And, to the embarrassment of Obama - who promised during last year's campaign to force Congress to curb its pork-barrel ways - the bill contains 7,991 earmarks totaling $5.5 billion, according to calculations by the Republican staff of the House Appropriations Committee.

Among the many earmarks are $485,000 for a boarding school for at-risk native students in western Alaska and $1.2 million for Helen Keller International so the nonprofit can provide eyeglasses to students with poor vision.

At the same time, the measure chips away at several leftover Bush administration policies. It clears the way for the Obama administration to reverse a rule issued late in the Bush administration that says greenhouse gases may not be restricted to protect polar bears from global warming. Another Bush administration rule that reduced the input of federal scientists in endangered species decisions can also be quickly overturned without a lengthy rulemaking process.

The big increases - among them a 14 percent boost for a popular program that feeds infants and poor women and a 10 percent increase for housing vouchers for the poor - represent a clear win for Democrats who spent most of the past decade battling with Bush over money for domestic programs.

Generous above-inflation increases are spread throughout, including a $2.4 billion, 13 percent increase for the Agriculture Department and a 10 percent increase for the money-losing Amtrak passenger rail system.

Congress also awarded itself a 10 percent increase in its own budget, bringing it to $4.4 billion. But the measure also contains a provision denying lawmakers the automatic cost-of-living pay increase they are due next Jan. 1.

[rrussell26]

Most citizens of this great country are well aware of the last sentence of Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address", if not, here it is; "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
If we hold true to that statement and If government is "for the people" why are "people" losing their homes, their jobs and their life savings while the Congress votes themselves a 10% budget increase?
If government is "of the people" then why don't we have proper representation in the Congress of the United States. The name says it all, The Congress of "THE UNITED STATES" should be looking after the interests of the country, not the interests of a few budget breaking "Porkers" down home. Why not let the state Legislature look after the local interests and get back to running the U.S.A. It is my contention that any Congressperson that sponsures a "Pork Bill" to be attached to a reasonable, good intentioned bill is doing the country a major dis-service and shows little concern for the average citizen's tax contribution that is placed in the person's trust hoping that it will be used to better the country.
I was enthusiastic after the results of the last election but I am losing that enthusiasim a lot quicker than it was realized in the beginning. I really looked forward to a number of "Ground Breaking" changes but all I see so far are changes in the minds of our leaders, both Democrats and Rebublicans and both the Administrative and Legislative
branches of our government.
It has been said that "Bad Gevernment is better than "No Government'. I guess I am blessed in that sense.






























































As for the last group "by the people"; yes the government is by the people because we vote them in based on their promises. Good grief, if un-fulfilled promises were worth a Dollar, this country wouldn't have a deficit.

[julesarcher1]

Is it communist or fascist, make up your mind.? The fact is the extreme capitalists blew us up and don't deserve to be here any more so don't blame me for saying it.

Posted by noloyalisti at 1:20 PM : Mar 11, 2009


I seriously doubt that the amount of Oxygen you used is offest by the amount of benefits you provide to the world.

[wardoglrs]

Richard Cheney was questioned on ABC about whether the fact that two thirds of Americans were opposed to the Iraq War had any influence on decision-making, he said that the American people get to make their input every four years and after that they can be ignored.

Those who know nothing about history are doomed forever to repeat it. Will Durant

As the economist Dr. Stuart Crane was fond of saying, Things in the monetary world don?t just happen to happen. They happen because they were planned to happen.

It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, August 4, 1820 see Positive Atheism's Historical section


Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master... George Washington

[starleo146]

The Senators just want to help with the economy, it will provide jobs to build the road to nowhere in west Virginia. I bet if they thought before all those earmarks have concluded, and the jobs it had, those Republicans with 40% would just die. Thanks for helping out a bipartisan bill after all they all chipped in

[noloyalisti]

Is it communist or fascist, make up your mind.? The fact is the extreme capitalists blew us up and don't deserve to be here any more so don't blame me for saying it.

Remember it was you flag waving fake patriots who voted for and are STILL defending the joke that was Bushoccio. And defended the fake war of terror and invading countries to steal their oil.

Dissent is the HIGHEST form of patriotism. Wake up and learn something.

[poeticaintit]

The bailouts wouldn't be so destructive if they didn't come with BIG GOVERNMENT involvement and intrustion....lists of things that MUST BE DONE IN ORDER TO QUALIFY...teams of FAUX-GOVERNMENTAL-KNOW-IT-ALLS making spot inspections and issuing statements threatening to seize, fire, and take over businesses who take money. Obama knows he's scaring businesses...he thinks that's cool...a little pay-back for him. Well....like it or not...blame all the previous president you want...this economy is Obama's....lock stock and barrel. It's his. Enough of this c.rap 'he inherited it'....it's his now. He doesn't seem to have any trouble laying down laws, rescinding anything Bush, or mandating his own executive orders....he's president...time he owned all of it. But back him into a corner...like asking the 'socialist' question and the first thing out of his mouth is a cop-out and more blame game. He needs to man-up and stop being a wi.mp....Michelle has bigger ballz.

[noloyalisti]

Unless we do radical change, this deficit spending will do nothing but sink us further like what happened after Reagan and the Bushes. We need serious changes to our control of corporations in general. We need to seize assets of the rich, both personal and corporate, if necessary.

[endurorob]

Who is Sorrento?
Posted by endurorob
--------------------
Who is Obama?
No one really knows.
Posted by TheMasses17 at 9:33 AM : Mar 11, 2009


I know he had the alias Barry Otero but I never heard him called Sorrento.

[bigwhtpony]

Democraps working for YOU!

"Representatives for Judicial Watch, which obtained e-mails and other documents from a Freedom of Information request, said the correspondence shows Pelosi has abused the system in place to accommodate congressional leaders and treated the Air Force as her "personal airline."

[bumpedoff]

The name you were looking for is barry soetoro but who knows how meny names he has