Congress Pushes One Last Earmark-Laden Bill
The spending barons on Capitol Hill, long used to muscling past opponents of bills larded with pet projects, are seeking one last victory before tea party-backed GOP insurgents storm Congress intent on ending the good old days of pork-barrel politics.
You might call it the last running of the old bulls in Congress.
In the waning days of the lame duck congressional session, Democrats controlling the Senate - in collaboration with a handful of old school Republicans - are pushing to wrap more than $1.2 trillion worth of unfinished budget work into a single "omnibus" appropriations bill.
Their 1,900-plus-page bill comes to the floor this week stuffed with provisions sought by lawmakers. It contains thousands of pet projects, known as earmarks, pushed by Democratic and GOP senators alike - despite a pledge by Republicans to give up such projects next year.
"That omnibus bill will be loaded down with earmarks and pork barrel spending, which is a direct - a direct - betrayal of the majority of voters on Nov. 2 who said 'Stop the earmarking, stop the spending, stop the pork barrel projects,"' protested Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
The catchall bill is designed to bankroll the operations of every Cabinet agency for the budget year that started Oct. 1, as well as provide more than $100 billion to pay for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It also challenges President Barack Obama. One administration-opposed provision would block the Pentagon from transferring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States. Another would continue a program to develop a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter despite a veto threat by the administration, which says it's a waste of money.
The architect of the measure, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has been working with senior Republicans on the panel - Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Robert Bennett of Utah and Christopher Bond of Missouri - to line up the 60 votes needed to repel a filibuster promised by GOP Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and other conservatives.
"We remain cautiously optimistic," said Inouye spokesman Rob Blumenthal.
Inouye's measure would replace a slightly less expensive bill that the House passed last week. The House bill doesn't contain earmarks like road and agricultural research projects, water treatment plants and grants for local anti-drug campaigns.
House Democrats, however, would gladly accept the fatter Senate version. Its many earmarks include $80 million in grants to states and Indian tribes to preserve Pacific salmon and $13 million in clean water grants for rural and Alaska native villages.
The year-end logjam continues a long tradition in which a dysfunctional Congress is unable to do its most basic job of providing money to run the government on time.
Rather than debating a dozen separate appropriations bills, the omnibus spending measure rolls all the spending bills into a single piece of legislation that is likely to be brought to the floor in a way that keeps opponents from trimming it down.
Democrats hope to pass the measure by a midnight deadline Saturday. That would give them the latest - and perhaps last - victory over conservatives who contend the annual appropriations bills spend too much money and contain too many pork-barrel projects.
Incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is a long-standing opponent of doling out federal dollars for sewer projects, community development grants and the like based on special requests from lawmakers.
Boehner will become the single most powerful member of Congress next year, and he has laid down the law, promising to cut as much as $100 billion from 2011 agency budgets and ban earmarks. He signed a letter last week asking Obama to veto the omnibus bill because of its earmarks.
For now, though, Boehner still is outnumbered by Democrats.
And across the Capitol, Democrats control the Senate with 58 votes. But their numbers will shrink to 53 in January, and many of the 13 incoming Senate Republicans are replacing eager earmarkers like Bond and Bennett, who follow the rich Appropriations Committee tradition of banding together, regardless of party, to beat back critics of their spending.
While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has come out against the omnibus measure, he hasn't been pressing hard to block it.
But GOP conservatives are irate over provisions that would begin to pay for Obama's overhauls of the U.S. health care system and financial services regulations.
AP You might call it the last running of the old bulls in Congress.
In the waning days of the lame duck congressional session, Democrats controlling the Senate - in collaboration with a handful of old school Republicans - are pushing to wrap more than $1.2 trillion worth of unfinished budget work into a single "omnibus" appropriations bill.
Their 1,900-plus-page bill comes to the floor this week stuffed with provisions sought by lawmakers. It contains thousands of pet projects, known as earmarks, pushed by Democratic and GOP senators alike - despite a pledge by Republicans to give up such projects next year.
"That omnibus bill will be loaded down with earmarks and pork barrel spending, which is a direct - a direct - betrayal of the majority of voters on Nov. 2 who said 'Stop the earmarking, stop the spending, stop the pork barrel projects,"' protested Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
The catchall bill is designed to bankroll the operations of every Cabinet agency for the budget year that started Oct. 1, as well as provide more than $100 billion to pay for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It also challenges President Barack Obama. One administration-opposed provision would block the Pentagon from transferring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States. Another would continue a program to develop a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter despite a veto threat by the administration, which says it's a waste of money.
The architect of the measure, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has been working with senior Republicans on the panel - Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Robert Bennett of Utah and Christopher Bond of Missouri - to line up the 60 votes needed to repel a filibuster promised by GOP Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and other conservatives.
"We remain cautiously optimistic," said Inouye spokesman Rob Blumenthal.
Inouye's measure would replace a slightly less expensive bill that the House passed last week. The House bill doesn't contain earmarks like road and agricultural research projects, water treatment plants and grants for local anti-drug campaigns.
House Democrats, however, would gladly accept the fatter Senate version. Its many earmarks include $80 million in grants to states and Indian tribes to preserve Pacific salmon and $13 million in clean water grants for rural and Alaska native villages.
The year-end logjam continues a long tradition in which a dysfunctional Congress is unable to do its most basic job of providing money to run the government on time.
Rather than debating a dozen separate appropriations bills, the omnibus spending measure rolls all the spending bills into a single piece of legislation that is likely to be brought to the floor in a way that keeps opponents from trimming it down.
Democrats hope to pass the measure by a midnight deadline Saturday. That would give them the latest - and perhaps last - victory over conservatives who contend the annual appropriations bills spend too much money and contain too many pork-barrel projects.
Incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is a long-standing opponent of doling out federal dollars for sewer projects, community development grants and the like based on special requests from lawmakers.
Boehner will become the single most powerful member of Congress next year, and he has laid down the law, promising to cut as much as $100 billion from 2011 agency budgets and ban earmarks. He signed a letter last week asking Obama to veto the omnibus bill because of its earmarks.
For now, though, Boehner still is outnumbered by Democrats.
And across the Capitol, Democrats control the Senate with 58 votes. But their numbers will shrink to 53 in January, and many of the 13 incoming Senate Republicans are replacing eager earmarkers like Bond and Bennett, who follow the rich Appropriations Committee tradition of banding together, regardless of party, to beat back critics of their spending.
While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has come out against the omnibus measure, he hasn't been pressing hard to block it.
But GOP conservatives are irate over provisions that would begin to pay for Obama's overhauls of the U.S. health care system and financial services regulations.
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Until the more extreme left and right views in Congress are weeded out, we will not be at the point where logical and efficient government can take place.
January will see more moderate figures in Congress. I for one can't wait to see what comes in January.
My point is, the economy is better but an HR women told me that she received 98 applications for 1 job. I used to never go longer than 2 weeks without a job (and that was for a holiday for myself). I've worked 25 years, paid a lot of taxes and am not feeling like a freeloader. If they'd create an option of paying back your benefits over time I'd be happy to do so (but that's the type of thinking you need not "these catch all bills area always full of port and fails miserably". There has always been pork projects. Why not make the congressonional leader submit his proposal (under 25 pages) to his peers with the "why, how and a timelines/impact if it does not happen". Then add a budget that justifies this expense so that questions may be asked. If it becomes too cumbersome, and people complain, then did they really want the pork project to begin with? We all knows vendors who perform these projects are brothers-in-law (who collect unemployment typically in the winter months so they never "skip a beat") and that this is not going away in 2 days.
It's funny, I actually heard a leader, a LEADER, of the House stating that it was unfair for him to miss his holiday when 2 million people are out of work and his own Democratic President and past President Bill Clinton from HIS OWN PARTY are being spit in the face. Where is the honor of being a public leader. I also heard people used the f-word about Obama (whatever opion you have) and that's not only rude but he is the elected President.
So, do you really think that this one battle can be resolved in 2 days. If so, tsigilli, exactly, and to the point, how would YOU do it?
It's a shame, this blog sounds like everyone just got off Rush Limbaugh and signed in to blog after being fired up. He's had his own problems and should have gone to jail "doctor shopping" but again, certain rules apply to the rich, not those getting on average about $500 a month on unemployment. I hope this country, including your neighborhood, is ready for homeless families, people and an ultimate increase in your state income tax to pay for rental assistance, heating assistance, food stamps, day care and (since most gave up their cars a long time ago) rides from state workers to doctor's appointments.
The 99ers have had their time, all they have to do is temp or something to regain benefits (or take a job beneath them) but with social networking sites being so prevalent that brings on it's own problems. I've been out of work for 6 months and in my state you have to expire all tiers to be eligible, that means I would have had to be collecting since 2008. I guess I would have had to relocate and have my family stay home and am looking to do so regardless.
So just a few thoughts. You seemed so much in the holiday/festive mood that I thought you'd like a cheering up!
Thanks and Happy Holiday, I hope the Senator does get to spend time in his mansion using mostly their own wives money. Where are the wives in this (oh sorry, that's the whole snob thing not the caring about others thing). Have fun at your annual soup kitchen contributions, hope there are a lot of reporters who really don't let up on asking about the bill.
Keep track of all who take advantage of this opportunity to spend money we do not have and remember them when they next run for any office or are considered for appointed positions. VOTE ALL THE BUMS OUT!
It would be better in the long run to defeat this bill, suffer the consequences of shutting down the government, and straighten out the mess in the next Congress. This administration has overused 'emergencies' to shove through legislation without the opportunity for the legislation to be openly debated and amended on the floor.
But the Government deficit is 8% of GDP. If start cutting back on spending, you're not just sacrificing services, you're also collapsing the economy because GDP is just 2%. Without all this Government 'pork', the GDP would be MINUS 6% ... unemployment would be like 15%. That's why Governments keep spending - because these same people that keep asking that something be done about the deficits also complain when the government doesn't do enough to create jobs.
The Government's 300 million times larger than one's personal budget, so when an individual belt-tightens, all you have to worry about is you. When the government belt-tightens, businesses collapse, and people lose their jobs.
On the flipside, advocates of stimulus always seem to forget that if you spend money pumping up the economy, because of the trade deficit some of it will stimulate somebody else's economy. There's also the war with Afghanistan.
This economy's in terrible shape.
Note the timing of this Tax Cuts War -- Republicans wanted to make sure they "sealed the deal" for their sole clients, the Super Rich, BEFORE the massive Scorched Earth budget-slashing blood-letting begins early next year. Repubs wanted to make sure their "Welfare for the Super Rich" project got debated and passed EARLY - BEFORE the "we've got to slash the deficit" skirmish is launched in January, because it would never pass if it came up when all the budgets for the poor and middle income programs were being decimated -- in the name of "fiscal responsibility."
Contrary to Obama's and Axelrod's blind perspective, the issue here is: "CUTTING THE DEFICIT." And the Republicans are the ones who rode that issue to election victories in November. And NOW, when the time has come for Repubs to "pony up" and put their 'actions' where their mouth is, they shrink from their responsibility and in a bitter twist of fate, they have the Dems in Congress and in the WH serving as their "point men" - doing all the arguing IN FAVOR OF this "Welfare for the Wealthy" ("deficit be dammed") Special Interest gift.
At some point, one has to ask, "Why are the Repubs so adept and successful at manipulating Dems so completely, that they actually have Dems doing ALL the "heavy lifting" to get this "Welfare for the Wealthy" tax plan passed?" The only answer there can be is that both parties represent the wealthy and NOT the poor or the medium income taxpayers. Next month these two parties will be addressing the poor AND the medium income taxpayers when they slash and obliterate vital services and programs that benefited THEM. Repubs & Dems want to make sure this "Christmas Gift for the Wealthiest" giveaway plan gets approved before they implement their cut-throat budget-slashing "to hell with the poor" dirty work in January. What a profoundly sick place we have in Washington.
Why this man is not president, I do not know. He would have been 10 times better than Obama, and we would not have the Obama HCA to worry about.
I hope everyone who voted for Obama knows what a mistake they made.
I don't wish them any well wishes at all. They should be kicked in the arse.