The Omnibus spending bill…
…is explained here.
Nobody’s especially happy with it, many people on both sides are angry with it, and it will probably pass.
The misgivings are bipartisan. House Democrats are reportedly threatening to not vote for the rule bringing the legislation to the floor; if they and House conservatives together defeat the rule, that would stop the underlying legislation in its tracks.
Most likely, though, the legislation will pass, and a number of important changes in policy and funding levels for everything from immigration to gun research will take effect…
The whole point of omnibus legislation is that it’s kind of a cobbled-together mishmash of provisions and priorities…
…even if all goes according to plan, expect to have very a similar fight in six months, and then again in a year.
That’s the way the federal government “works” these days.
Meet the new boss(es), same as the old boss(es).
Remind me again why we bother with elections.
There are days when virtually every major story in the news is disheartening in every way.
Today was one of those days.
Griffin:
Agreed.
the more things are done right, the less are happy till they are done wrong… which then makes them less happy than they were before, which they now have to find blame, not understanding.
on another note
Charles Lazarus, who founded what would become Toys R Us in 1948, has died, company officials confirmed Thursday. He was 94.
I wonder if he knew his stores closed yesterday?
Artfldgr:
Reminds me of this song.
A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
Hey, its only another TRILLION dollars of indebtedness for future generations.
What can’t go on, won’t go on…
That which can not survive will not survive. Kicking the can is an old school metaphor. We are in a few years of that which is doomed to collapse shall collapse. First Chicago, then IL-NJ–CT-NY-CA become junk bonds. Once that happens DC is next in line.
Yes, we have been kicking the can for decades, but the end happens suddenly. No clues, no warnings, it just “unexpectedly” happens.
Glad to be in flyover country, food and water sufficient, and lots of reloads.
When you won’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
The reps fell for a dem budget.
House Democrats are reportedly threatening to not vote for the rule bringing the legislation to the floor
Demoncrats pretend election rules matter while Republicans pretend election results matter.
It’s just another Blue vs Red Coliseum bread for the masses entertainment distraction.
People don’t even know what the earth is, let alone what goes in the DIstrict of the US Goddess Columbia.
What are you guys complaining about?
Trump never ran as a deficit hawk. He bragged about being the King of Debt.
Bannon explicitly advocated borrowing kajillions and spending it on infrastructure because (he correctly pointed out) interests rates were low and the spending would stimulate working-class job growth.
If you wanted a balanced budget you should have voted for Clinton. Rubinomics.
why is everyone sad? What were they expecting from this bill?
It isn’t THEIR money.
So why should our Congress Critters care how much of OUR money they spend?
Parker:
Glad to be in flyover country, food and water sufficient, and lots of reloads.
Somehow I don’t think you are referencing the budget bill.
My wife and I have has a running joke that when one of us has to spend money on something, the other says, “Great, now I can get something.”
This is how the government works, except they aren’t joking.
As I posted on Facebook this morning “omnibus” is Latin for “I am unwilling to make a prudent and responsible decision.”
When it comes to Congress, “compromise” seems to mean, “I get everything I want _and_ you get everything you want”.
Manju:
Of course, you know what people are complaining about.
One reason they’re complaining is that a lot of people here never voted for Trump, and don’t like a ton of things about him, including his lack of fiscal conservatism. And if you ever paid attention to what’s going on here, you would know that.
A second (and related) reason some are complaining is that they may have voted for him but still don’t like plenty of things about him.
A third reason some are complaining is that there are things they like in the bill but plenty of things they don’t like. It’s not just about spending for infrastructure.
As for “if you wanted a balanced budget you should have voted for Clinton,” that’s your idea of a funny joke, I suppose. You mean, balanced like Obama’s? And if I’m not mistaken, Hillary Clinton is not the same person as Bill Clinton, nor is it the same time or the same situation.
Yuval Levin found ONE thing he liked, and I agree. If not ignored by Congress (see “Pay as you go” rule for legislation)(and most of the Constitution, of course), it should eventually provide fodder for all sorts of blogging posts.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/do-not-congratulate/
“Do you want some good news out of the gargantuan budget bill now making its way through Congress? Buried among the mountains of pork and assorted unmentionables, there is one random provision I really like. It requires the Congressional Research Service – which does a huge amount of very valuable policy research for Congress – to make all its work public online for the first time. That’s fantastic, and long overdue. The Congressional scorekeepers, CBO and JCT, should be required to make all their modeling and analysis public next.
Do you want more good news out of that bill? I don’t really have any. There are here and there some ways that Congress could have done much worse and didn’t. That’s good. But as fiscal policy, as an example of how Congress now works, and as substantive legislation on a broad range of issues, the bill is an ignominious fiasco. … failure on this scale is nonetheless ultimately a choice they have made, or the sum of a series of choices. If we needed yet more evidence of the need for fundamental renewal in the GOP, here it is.”
See this is why when Cruz caused the Dems to shut down the government, it was a good thing. Just keep it shut down, maybe they will get rid of the IRS later. Probably not.
They don’t dare shut off the federal or state government for too long. It’s mostly a shock discipline rod for their human livestock cattle in DC, to get more Dem votes. If they shut down the federal level for too long, the American people might wake up and realize that the feds don’t actually do anything useful.
“anything”
Once again, words have meaning, except to Humpty Dumpty. For him(?) any word means whatever he says at that time.
The Federal government does a few things that are useful, nearly everyone would agree to that.
The only available solutions are: 1) get rid of the filibuster; or 2) elect 60 Republicans — real Republicans, not RINOs — to the Senate.
Anybody have any ideas how to do either?