This was brought up in the Tobacco Age thread.


Here's a recent article from last week about the yet to be passed spending bill. Its HUGE!




Remember Nancy Pelosi’s famous words about Obamacare? “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

That was nine years ago, but the sad reality of Washington is that we do this all the time. This week, Congress is set to vote on a giant spending package — 2,313 pages long — that was just released, was negotiated in secret, spends $1.4 trillion, and is chock full of member projects and special-interest giveaways.

To put that number in context: Without any opportunity to read the bill, Congress will vote to spend more than $4,200 for every man, woman, and child in America. That’s on top of the $23 trillion in debt we’ve already accumulated, not to mention that the federal government is already running a trillion-dollar deficit, every year.

For years, Republicans fought against wasteful spending under the Obama administration. My party (rightly) argued that our debt and deficits were unsustainable, that we were leaving a burden that future generations simply couldn’t afford. At some point, the bill will come due.

Unfortunately, after regaining control of Congress, my party has shown an almost equal disregard for the dangers of our growing national debt and annual deficits as have the Democrats. Sure, you can argue that, in order to prevent a government shutdown, we have to work with Nancy Pelosi and House and Senate Democrats to get an agreement. But I look at these spending bills and wonder, How would they be different if Nancy Pelosi sat in her office and wrote them by herself? She’s driving this train, making sure Democratic priorities are funded, and we’re letting her.

Let me give you some examples.

This package includes $25 million for the “operation, maintenance, and security” of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

It includes a $7.25 million increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest increase in a decade.

These spending increases might be nice to have, but we are $23 trillion in debt. We need to make some tough choices.

It includes more than $1 billion in new foreign-aid funding without any discussion about what we’re getting for this funding.

It repeals three Obamacare taxes, with a cost of approximately $400 billion over ten years — the medical-device tax, the sales tax on health insurance, and the Cadillac tax. While I’m all for cutting these taxes, there’s never even been a discussion about whether we should also repeal the spending that these taxes were supposed to pay for. That’s Washington in a nutshell.

This package also includes dozens of what are called “tax extenders.” These are tax-related provisions that expire at the end of the year. Rather than debate the merits of extending them through the normal committee process, big companies and their high-priced lobbyists push to get them thrown into this end-of-the-year spending package, knowing that most of Congress will never even read the bills.

There’s a railroad-track-maintenance credit, a biodiesel and renewable diesel credit, an alternative-fuel refueling-property credit, a production credit for Indian coal facilities, a two-wheeled plug-in electric-vehicle credit, and tax benefits for qualified fuel-cell motor vehicles and nonbusiness energy properties, among many, many others.

And let’s not forget. This bill spends $1.4 trillion, with no cuts or reforms.

This is not how Washington is supposed to work.

The average American holds Congress in low regard, and after one year in the Senate, I’ve learned just how well-earned that disdain is.

I have a few simple solutions to make Washington work more like the real world, including term limits, a line-item veto, and ending automatic congressional pay raises.

But one simple idea that we can get done right now is No Budget, No Pay. If Congress can’t pass a budget and appropriations bills in a timely and orderly fashion, members of Congress shouldn’t get a paycheck. You don’t get paid if you don’t do your job. Why should Congress?

It’s time to stop the madness. How many more trillions of dollars do we need to spend before we wake up to the danger of our national debt?

Here it is plain and simply either side will tell you anything you want to hear to get elected.

Yes sir, we are in a sad state of affairs.

End Omnibus spending bills.
Break down the bills.
If congress had to discuss, fight and haggle over every spending item line by line it would take them a year to get it done.

That would be a good thing, they'd have no time to screw up other stuff.

Most people can not grasp how much 1.4 trillium dollars is. I sure can not.

That would require them to actually be in office and do some work.

That would have been impressive and may have had impact if he didn't set himself on a stage like a poorly trained actor. Good Grief Charlie Brown.....

Yep..And this 1.4 trillion only makes it until September 2020...Ouchy

What is the revenue bill? Evidently it is far, far short of the spending bill.

Funny I have not heard one fiscal Conservative politician say anything about controlling spending or deficits. We probably will hear a few sound bytes either way as this nears and gets more coverage.
Principles change depending upon who one is talking with or to or when it is expedient for one to change as needed.

Bryce

Fun fact:

1.4 Trillion , weighs 15,423 tons.


Heck , at this rate, they won't need trucks to haul money; they will need RAILROAD BOX CARS to haul all that money !

But that wouldn’t give them any time to perform in their clown circus called impeachment.

A few quotes from ROLL CALL LINK


"A lot of hard work brought this appropriations process back from the brink," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday, after rebuking House Democrats for charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress."


Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., followed up by touting several "wins" for Democrats, including $25 million for the federal government to study gun violence, $425 million to bolster election security ahead of the 2020 elections and $550 million in grant funding to help low-income families afford childcare.



"Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee also lambasted the spending packages, calling them a "fiscal dumpster fire" as well as criticizing both Republicans and Democrats with some holiday pizazz.

"The worst Christmas movie is the one that runs every single year from this chamber right here in this city on C-SPAN… It's called omnibus," Lee said.

"The only plot twist this time around is that instead of a continuing resolution or a single omnibus, leaders and appropriators have cleverly put the negotiated spending agreement into two bills, so that we can all pretend that it's better than just one," Lee continued. "Even though they were negotiated at the same time, released to the public at the same time and will be voted on within only minutes of each other."