Senate Spending Bill Contains Billions in Pork
Lady Liberty
that they can vote themselves both bread and circuses ...for a while." -
Robert Heinlein, Expanded Universe
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which
debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -- G. GORDON LIDDY
"People who have turned the government into a looting machine need to be
replaced."
- Afghani Presidential Candidate Ashraf Ghani, 2009
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
Safety and Happiness. ...
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it
is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to
provide new Guards for their future security." - The Declaration of
Independence, July 4th, 1776.
GOP: Senate Spending Bill Contains Billions in Pork
Sunday, 13 Dec 2009 05:57 PM
WASHINGTON � The Senate on Sunday passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill
with increased budgets for vast areas of the federal government,
including health, education, law enforcement and veterans' programs.
The more-than-1,000-page package, one of the last essential chores of
Congress this year, passed 57-35 and now goes to President Barack Obama
for his signature.
The weekend action underlined the legislative crush faced by Congress as
it tries to wind up the year. After the vote, the Senate immediately
returned to the debate on health care legislation that has consumed its
time and energy for weeks. Senate Democrats hope to reach a consensus in
the coming days on Obama's chief domestic priority.
The spending bill combines six of the 12 annual appropriation bills for
the 2010 budget year that began Oct. 1. Obama has signed into law five
others.
The final one, a $626 billion defense bill, will be used as the base
bill for another catch-all package of measures that Congress must deal
with in the coming days. Those include action to raise the $12.1
trillion debt ceiling and proposals to stimulate the job market.
The spending bill passed Sunday includes $447 billion for departments'
operating budgets and about $650 billion in mandatory payments for
federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Those programs
under immediate control of Congress would see increases of about 10
percent.
The FBI gets $7.9 billion, a $680 million increase over 2009; the
Veterans Health Administration budget goes from $41 billion to $45.1
billion; and the National Institutes of Health receives $31 billion, a
$692 million increase.
All but three Democrats voted for the bill, while all but three
Republicans opposed it. Democrats said the spending was critical to meet
the needs of a recession-battered economy. "Every bill that is passed,
every project that is funded and every job that is created helps America
take another step forward on the road of economic recovery," Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said after the vote.
Republicans decried what they called out-of control spending and pointed
to an estimated $3.9 billion in the bill for more than 5,000 local
projects sought by individual lawmakers from both parties.
The Citizens Against Government Waste said those projects included
construction of a county farmer's market in Kentucky, renovation of a
historic theater in New York and restoration of a mill in Rhode Island.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a longtime critic of such projects, said it
was "shameful" that so many had found their way into the legislation.
Most Americans, he said, were watching football and not the Senate
debate, adding, "If they knew what we are about to pass ...."
The legislation also contains numerous items not directly related to
spending. It provides help for auto dealers facing closure, ends a ban
on funding by the District of Columbia government for abortions and
allows the district to permit medical marijuana, lets Amtrak passengers
carry unloaded handguns in their checked baggage and permits detainees
held at Guantanamo Bay to be transferred to the United States to stand
trial, but not to be released.
The bill also approves a 2 percent pay increase for federal workers.
With the Senate concentrating on health care, attention on the upcoming
jobs plan shifts to the House.
The defense bill that will be the basis for the package normally enjoys
wide bipartisan support, but Republicans, and some fiscally conservative
Democrats, are unhappy with the prospect of another jolt of deficit-
swelling spending.
Congress must soon raise the debt ceiling, now at $12.1 trillion, so the
Treasury can continue to borrow, and Democratic leaders are eyeing a new
figure close to $14 trillion, pushing the issue past next November's
election.
But a bipartisan group in the Senate says a higher ceiling should be
tied to creation of a task force on deficit reduction, and House
Democratic moderates say their votes could depend on winning a "pay-as-
you-go" law requiring that new tax cuts or spending programs don't add
to the deficit.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., on CNN's "State of the Union," favored a
deficit task force. He said he didn't "see how this process where
everybody kind of lards on is going to actually ever come to an end
unless we finally have the discipline to do a straight up-or-down vote
across the board on revenues and spending cuts."
Proposals to put people back to work include tax breaks for new company
hires, small business tax breaks, public works spending and federal aid
to states.
Congress is also likely to extend measures, included in the $787 billion
stimulus act last February, that provide jobless payments and health
insurance subsidies for the unemployed.
_________
"We have allowed our constitutional republic to deteriorate into a
virtually unchecked direct democracy. Today's political process is
nothing more than a street fight between various groups seeking to vote
themselves other people's money. ( and, I think, freedoms ) Individual
voters tend to support the candidate that promises them the most federal
loot in whatever form, rather than the candidate who will uphold the
rule of law." --Rep. Ron Paul
--
THE way to peace, freedom and prosperity:
Please read about the true principles of liberty at:
http://www.planetarybillofrights.org/
And read this:
This should be called "Textbook of Liberty"
http://www.laissez-fairerepublic.com/textbook.htm