"HOUSE REPUBLICANS ABOUT TO VOTE ON TRILLION-DOLLAR SPENDING BILL THEY HAVEN’T READ
Last month, the Paul Ryan-Patty Murray discretionary spending bill was unveiled. Sort of unveiled, anyway: it didn’t actually exist, but was summarized in a series of bullet points. Now the bill has taken tangible form. Here it is, all 2,860 pages, including explanatory statements:
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The House is expected to vote on the omnibus spending bill tomorrow, less than 48 hours after copies became available. No one will have read the law; this is government by press release.
The bill is advertised at $1.1 trillion, but in the brief time available, Republican Senate staffers have found that it actually spends $18 billion more than that. The bill includes $18 billion in “CHIMPS,” which are “reductions” in spending that never would have happened in any event, which are used to offset actual spending increases. But who’s counting? The days when we could expect Congressmen to know what they are voting on to the nearest $18 billion are long gone."...
"Five Reasons The Omnibus Appropriation Passed By Such Big Margins17 jan 2014
posted by stan collender
In case you missed it, the FY2014 omnibus appropriation, which will keep the government funded through the September 30, that is, through the end of the fiscal year, passed the Senate yesterday 72-26. It was adopted by the House the day before 359 to 67.
Here are the five quick reasons why the votes were so big and bipartisan.
1. The GOP is still hurting from the October government shutdown. There's no doubt that the negative political repercussions from being blamed for this October's two-week shutdown is haunting House Republicans. As happened after the 1995-1996 shutdowns when congressional Republicans took it on the chin politically, the chances of a shutdown being threatened again any time soon are now significantly lower than they were several months ago and the omnibus was the first opportunity for the House GOP leadership to take advantage of this new sentiment.
2. The omnibus gave the leadership a way to reward members for their votes in favor of the bill. This is real inside-baseball:"...
The not-so-conservatives are playing a more conservative game... not in the policies they are pushing for, but in the amount of ammunition they are willing to give to the Obama/Clinton media. It's really the only way at this point to get the seats needed IMO. Best to just get along through the summer and make sure Obama can't do too much more damage once the GOP has 2/3 power.
The left is angry because they are now being judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.