The $1.7 trillion spending bill passed the Senate today. You can expect the House to pass it by tonight. After all, there is a storm coming in and our elected officials desperately want to get home in time to celebrate Christmas/Yule/Festivus/Solstice or whatever they’re calling it these days. So, it’s time to smash that “like” button and get the hell out of Dodge/D.C.
Never mind what this will do to the nation and its people. Gotta hang those stockings by the chimney with care and get to the store before the brandy and eggnog are sold out. Silly me, I’ll bet most of them have sent someone to the store already. Scratch the eggnog line and replace it with “get to the condo at Aspen.” There, I fixed it for myself.
According to The Washington Examiner, the Senate voted 68-29 to force-feed Americans a big old pork sandwich with a side of curly fries. No surprise, really. If you can’t read a 4,155-page bill in three days, why even bother trying? Of course, the GOP members of the House and Senate could have divided the monstrosity up between themselves and had their staff members look for potential problems. Then they could have come together with the information they needed to block the thing. But that would have made too much sense. And I am sure some Republicans got something out of it. Mitch McConnell no doubt is resting easily on his way home to Kentucky to trim the family tree. And to be fair, massive bills with a short timeline are hallmarks of Democrat legislative doctrine. Does anyone remember Obamacare?
Related: The Spending Bill Funds Abortions to Preserve ‘Biodiversity’
The Democrats needed ten GOP votes to keep the thing out of filibuster territory, and eliminated things that, honestly, are a mystery to me. Given the amount of unmitigated crap in the bill, Democrats crossed off an expansion of the child tax credit, emergency coronavirus aid, and a provision giving Afghan refugees a way to secure permanent residency in the U.S. Among other things. I’ll bet you the $1.50 left in my retirement account that those items were written in specifically to be used as concessions, should the need have arisen. Or they were expendable and will make an appearance next year.
Senate Donkeys wanted the vote Wednesday evening, but Utah Sen. Mike Lee added an amendment that would have tied funding for DHS to keeping Title 42 in place. That would have thwarted the effort to pass the spending bill. But Democrats Chuck Schumer and Jon Tester along with alleged “Independent” Kyrsten Sinema created another amendment to allow legislators to ignore the Lee amendment. The Democrats’ amendment failed, but it accomplished its goal of using up enough votes to submarine Lee’s effort.
Of the bill, Lee commented, “This is why we’re $31 trillion in debt, because of stuff like this. Four or five people in Congress wrote this. And they put it together. They introduced it in the middle of the night, early morning. And now, they’re wanting to collapse all hearings of floor debates or discussions in earnest about this.”
Depending on when you read this, the House may have already passed the bill, which will then be on its way to the Oval Office to await Biden and his executive signature in his favorite color of crayon. According to the Examiner, Dems can force it through along party lines, and the leadership is telling members to get ready for a vote tonight.
A very Murky Christmas and a Crappy New Year to us all. And God help us, every one.
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