Posted on 12/15/2010 6:35:08 AM PST by FredJake
An unidentified GOP source told Fox News Tuesday that "All hell is breaking loose" in the Senate over a 1,924-page spending bill that includes 20,000 earmark requests.
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) will likely demand the omnibus bill be read in its entirety on the Senate floor prior to a vote.
Fox News reported the bill - described as "a total mess" - is intended to cover the rest of the current fiscal year. If passed, the bill would become law without any debate in the Senate.
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the bill must pass:
"The twelve bills included in this package fulfill the Congress' most basic responsibility, to exercise the power of the purse," he said in a statement. "This measure reflects a year's worth of work by members of both parties. Together, we have closely scrutinized the president's budget request, held hundreds of hearings, thousands of meetings, and asked literally tens of thousands of questions to each and every federal department and agency seeking justification for how taxpayer dollars are being spent."
But in a statement released Tuesday, John Cornyn (R-TX) said the Democrats - who still control both chambers of Congress - have "already forgotten the voters' message in November."
John McCain echoed that sentiment, saying:
“That omnibus bill will be loaded down with earmarks and pork barrel spending, which is a direct — a direct — betrayal of the majority of voters on Nov. 2 who said ‘Stop the earmarking, stop the spending, stop the pork barrel projects"
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
This is nothing but outright theft
The 100 senators have 10,000 lawyers on staff...
Born September 7, 1924
In office since January 3, 1963
Apparently Hawaii doesn't see a problem with this. For the record, Lautenberg is older than Inouye.
You bet, lets party like its 1640. I've always loved those lobster helmets.
They should give the money to us!
The Repubs need to do whatever is necessary to run out the clock on this, until January.
The roots of the Tree of Liberty are very, very dry.
Dem Omnibus Bill: $1.1 trillion, 20,000 earmarks, 1,900 pages, $575 million per page,
By: David Rogers, Politico
FR Posted by Sub-Driver, December 14, 2010
Senate Democrats began rolling out Tuesday a year-end, government-wide spending bill that cuts more than $26 billion from President Barack Obama’s 2011 requests even as it defies earmark bans – or veto threats over Joint Strike Fighter engines.
Filling more than 1,900 pages w/ 20,0000 earmarks, costing $1.1 trillion, the measure is sure to invite criticism as a last stand by the Senate’s old bulls before the more conservative, tea party-oriented Congress takes hold in January. But weeks of bipartisan work have gone into the effort to meet spending targets previously embraced by the Republican leadership and also try to salvage something from the failed budget process this year.
The Departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security have the greatest stake in the increased appropriations that are permitted above 2010 levels, but to a surprising degree, the bill also makes room for (illegals) new education and health spending in addition to billions to meet a shortfall in Pell Grants for low-income college students (illegals).
The first test—getting to 60 votes to limit debate—could come as early as Saturday. The $857 billion price tag for President Barack Obama’s tax cut deal with Republicans makes this task harder.
And if the Senate falls short of 60, it will have to either embrace some version of a stripped-down House-passed continuing resolution for 2011 or simply punt the fight into January when Republicans will have more power. (Excerpt) Read more at dyn.politico.com ...
I’ve been calling Bill Nelson’s office for 2 hours and the line is BUSY!!! Both local and D.C.
I’m on hold now...
I can see why his office refused to tell me what he'd done.
True but is has become a symbol of Congress' profligacy and if they can't be eliminated given how little they are compared to the rest of the wasteful spending then there is little hope for Americans not yet born living without a yoke around their necks.
I'm willing to bet that at least 1/3 of the pork requests are from Republicans.
I’ve been thinking in terms of a national strike for a long time.
Just nobody shows up for work or shopping, and mill around DC and state capitals holding signs, singing, whatever.
Just make the entire machine come to a dead stop.
That’s what they did in Czechoslovakia to kick the commies out. I think they called it the Velvet Revolution. Not a shot was fired.
Everyone just stopped functioning.
The freaking ****wads in the government had to come out of the buildings finally since there was no food or electricity or something. End of story!!!!
The tea party was not about earmarks. It was about fundamentally shrinking the size and scope of the fedgov. It was about protesting the moral hazard of the bailouts. It was a protest against Keynesianism gone wild.
Earmarks are a pittance. And they are truly beside the point.
I would bet good money that there are many earmark requests from R's also.
These bas%$rds need to realize it isn't THEIR money. It's OUR money.
We all have households budgets. It's a lot like a credit card; don't use a credit card to buy things that you can't afford.
I'd like to point out that every bill is required by senate rules to be read in its entirety on the floor. Any bill that is not read, requires unanymous consent to bypass that rule. In other words, all it takes is ONE senator to object, and it must be done.
The flip side of this, is that for any bill not read, it means that every single senator. has given their positive approval for it's reading to be waived.
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