Omnibus Spending Bill

[Chris0nllyn]

$1.3 Trillion. Adds about $7 Trillion to 10-year deficit.

- $1.57 billion to start building a wall. One can only assume he'll be sending Mexico a bill?
- Additional $61 billion for defense including 2.4% pay raise for troops. Up to $700 billion total. More = better, right?
- Additional $3 billion to fight opioid abuse. Up to $5 billion total. We'll win this drug war....one day. Maybe the Philippines-esque death panelties will work?
- $21 billion for infrastructure projects. No tunnel for NY though.
- $20 billion over 10 years for wildfire disaster relief.
- Potential federal grants to get states to send required info to databases. Would anyone else like to get money to follow existing law?
- Fix some loopholes in the recent tax bill. One being tax advtages for farmers selling crops to co-ops. Dems don't want it fixed, but agreed if they get tax credits for low incoming housing.
- CLOUD Act makes it easier for US law enforcement to get information stored overseas. This allows those in power to negotiate data exchange agreements in lieu of Congress and the judicial branch.

More significantly, they assume a current law baseline where the budget deal only increases spending for two years and large parts of the tax law expire after eight years or sooner. Under our "Alternative Scenario," which assumes policymakers borrow an additional $3.6 trillion through 2028, interest spending will rise to $1.05 trillion, or 3.6 percent of GDP, by 2028.

Under either scenario, interest will easily be the fastest growing area of the budget. We estimate that under current law, it will increase by 267 percent in dollars between 2017 and 2028; no other category is over 100 percent. Under our alternative scenario, cumulative growth in interest is even higher at 301 percent; in other words, interest would quadruple between 2017 and 2028.

As a result, under current law, the federal government will spend more on interest than it does on Medicaid by 2021 and more than it does on defense by 2024.

http://www.crfb.org/blogs/interest-spending-course-quadruple

 

[SamSpade]

Is there a reason you'd object to funding for opioid abuse?

Or do you think simply giving up and making it legal will stop the death toll?

 

[Chris0nllyn]

Is there a reason you'd object to funding for opioid abuse?

Or do you think simply giving up and making it legal will stop the death toll?

I object to what the funding is being used for, not the funding itself. I don't believe the way we've been fighting the drug war has worked, by any measurable metric.

I also object to the idea that capital punishment is the best way to deal with it.

Making it legal, and shifting a portion of the funding to treatment has worked elsewhere.

 

[Hijinx]

I object to what the funding is being used for, not the funding itself. I don't believe the way we've been fighting the drug war has worked, by any measurable metric.

I also object to the idea that capital punishment is the best way to deal with it.

Making it legal, and shifting a portion of the funding to treatment has worked elsewhere.

Why did I suspect Chris wanted to make drugs legal, well, it doesn't matter.

I just hope that Trump doesn't sign this travesty.
I believe Ryan and the other members of the House are working hard to make sure the Democrats will win in 2018.
We certainly don't have a Republican party any more. They are just part of the Uni-Party.

 

[Chris0nllyn]

Why did I suspect Chris wanted to make drugs legal, well, it doesn't matter.

I just hope that Trump doesn't sign this travesty.
I believe Ryan and the other members of the House are working hard to make sure the Democrats will win in 2018.
We certainly don't have a Republican party any more. They are just part of the Uni-Party.

I've advocated for drugs being legal for years, so I'm not sure why it's a surprise.

Trump will sign whatever ends up on his desk, and both Dems and Republicans can both spend us into oblivion. GOP voters continually make it clear that fiscal conservatism is not important to them anymore so why are you blaming Ryan for anything?

 

[Hijinx]

I've advocated for drugs being legal for years, so I'm not sure why it's a surprise.

Trump will sign whatever ends up on his desk, and both Dems and Republicans can both spend us into oblivion. GOP voters continually make it clear that fiscal conservatism is not important to them anymore so why are you blaming Ryan for anything?

The average GOP voter is between a rock and a hard place.
We certainly do not want the Democrats in the majority .
Their anti-gun, anti First amendment, Pro illegal immigrant,pro progressive, Pro Global warming stances along with their other faults are just plain abhorrent.
On the other hand we voted for Republicans who are cowards, and they turned on us.
We vote for Trump and they turned on him.
Now they are voting for big spending , planned parenthood, Obama care, and large deficits.Most of which we voted against.
And Trump will probably sign it.

So: Knowing this do we vote for Republicans this year to keep the Democrats out of office, or do we vote for Ryan, McConnell, and the useless Republicans we have in Congress now, who have spun us more than once.
I m pretty sure the Democrats will kill us in 2018, and it's the fault of Republicans.

 

[Gilligan]

The average GOP voter is between a rock and a hard place.
We certainly do not want the Democrats in the majority .
Their anti-gun, anti First amendment, Pro illegal immigrant,pro progressive, Pro Global warming stances along with their other faults are just plain abhorrent.
On the other hand we voted for Republicans who are cowards, and they turned on us.
We vote for Trump and they turned on him.
Now they are voting for big spending , planned parenthood, Obama care, and large deficits.Most of which we voted against.
And Trump will probably sign it.

So: Knowing this do we vote for Republicans this year to keep the Democrats out of office, or do we vote for Ryan, McConnell, and the useless Republicans we have in Congress now, who have spun us more than once.
I m pretty sure the Democrats will kill us in 2018, and it's the fault of Republicans.

Yep...it's a friggin' mess.

 

[Chris0nllyn]

The average GOP voter is between a rock and a hard place.
We certainly do not want the Democrats in the majority .
Their anti-gun, anti First amendment, Pro illegal immigrant,pro progressive, Pro Global warming stances along with their other faults are just plain abhorrent.
On the other hand we voted for Republicans who are cowards, and they turned on us.
We vote for Trump and they turned on him.
Now they are voting for big spending , planned parenthood, Obama care, and large deficits.Most of which we voted against.
And Trump will probably sign it.

So: Knowing this do we vote for Republicans this year to keep the Democrats out of office, or do we vote for Ryan, McConnell, and the useless Republicans we have in Congress now, who have spun us more than once.
I m pretty sure the Democrats will kill us in 2018, and it's the fault of Republicans.

It's too bad there aren't other parties out there that more align with the ideals of gun ownership, fiscal conservatism, and freedom.

 

[This_person]

It's too bad there aren't other parties out there that more align with the ideals of gun ownership, fiscal conservatism, and freedom.

There are, but they are also for a lot of things most of us are not, and they put up people who would be far worse than Trump (but still not as bad as Clinton) for higher office like president. Usually, they have no one for other major or even lower offices.

 

[Gilligan]

It's too bad there aren't other parties out there that more align with the ideals of gun ownership, fiscal conservatism, and freedom.

The two parties have had a death grip on our government for a long time now. It actually might be too late to change that without a seriously energetic popular revolt...triggered eventually by I don't know what.

 

[awpitt]

Well, now Trump is threatening to veto the budget deal.

 

[Gilligan]

I hope he does. The bill is a disgrace.

 

[awpitt]

I hope he does. The bill is a disgrace.

Why do you consider it a disgrace? (real question)

 

[Toxick]

Well, now Trump is threatening to veto the budget deal.

I hope he does.

The bill sucks straight ass.




But mostly because I want to witness the conniption that Schumer would have on the floor of the Senate, punctuated by a stroke and ear-bleeding, mouth-foaming, trousers-filling convulsion.

I will DVR that ####, and it will help me fall into the soothing arms of blissful sleep every night for the next two months.

 

[Gilligan]

Why do you consider it a disgrace? (real question)

It's jam packed with spending on lots of things I don't think one thin dime should got to and it does not contain money for things I consider worth every penny...like seriously capable border security measures, for example.

 

[Toxick]

It's jam packed with spending on lots of things I don't think one thin dime should got to and it does not contain money for things I consider worth every penny...like seriously capable border security measures, for example.

Page 226: "no funds in this act will be used to support or justify torture"




Why are you in favor of torture?

 

[Gilligan]

Why are you in favor of torture?

Because I keep holding out faint hope that someday we can use it on people like Schumer or Schiff...

 

[Kyle]

Why do you consider it a disgrace? (real question)

It’s 1.2 Trillion Dollars too big.

 

[Chris0nllyn]

Rand Paul's thoughts (in addition to the "Page 226" comment above):

Page 240 good news for states rights:

no funds will be spent to prevent any state’s medical marijuana initiatives.

Here are a few more highlights:

o $1m for the Cultural Antiquities Task Force
o $6.25m for the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation
o $20m for Countering Foreign State Propaganda
o $12m for Countering State Disinformation and Pressure

o $1m for the World Meteorological Organization
o $218m for Promoting Democracy Development in Europe (yep..the birthplace of democracy needs promoting)
o $25m for International Religious Freedom
o $10m for disadvantaged Egyptian Students

on page 355. NSA prohibited from targeting US persons with FISA 702 program.

sounds good —but — privacy advocates fear that NSA still does back-door targeting of US persons.

Page 348 of terrible, rotten, no-good budget busting bill, a nugget that I wish we obeyed

sec. 8103: none of the funds may be used in contravention of the War Powers Act

eyes getting tired but really someone should read this beast.

Page 392 sec 9007: no $ shall be spent “for the permanent stationing of US forces in Afghanistan”

Wonder what they meant by permanent? Some might argue that after 16 years we approaching the definition of permanent.

Page 430 of “crumni-bus:” Good news. The government is going to “earn” $350 million by selling oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Bad news is the $ won’t go to reduce the $21 trillion debt. The $ will be instead be spent elsewhere by the Federal government.

And more....

https://twitter.com/RandPaul

 

[PsyOps]

Wow! Okay, this is insane spending. Trump has vowed to never sign such a bill again; based on the premise that this bill (like so many) is thousands of pages long, and released at a time where no one could have possibly read it. But he voiced his priority - it funds the military in a way he agrees with. If it didn't, he would have vetoed. Given what our troops have had to tolerate for the past 17+ years, this is long overdue to get these folks a good raise, and other bennies to convince them their CINC gives a damn about them.

And all some of you can think about is how you're going to get your dope legalized.

This is congress, and their insatiable appetite to spend OUR money. I have long resolved that out government will never get spending under control. And now they do it in a manner in which they have no clue how it's being spent; because they didn't even read it.

Our new normal in government - write bills so big so it can never be read or understood.