(November 5, 2007 - Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News)
Senate Democrats got what they wanted today and managed to break Republican filibuster to pass a $1.1 trillion end of the year spending bill. No shock that this vote comes on a Saturday when most Americans will pay little attention to it as that has become the strategy of this Congress as well as the White House. In case you were wondering, this doesn’t even include the more than $600 billion defense bill. That is still being eyed as the potential vehicle for raising the nation’s debt limit by burying it in the language there. Adding that here would have exposed it for what it truly is… flatly irresponsible and yet another step toward bankrupting future generations. In case you’re wondering, Joe Lieberman was the swing vote here. Republicans should be careful how closely they snuggle up with him once the healthcare debate finally comes to vote. Not a guarantee like most would love to believe he is.
In a rare Sunday vote, the Senate will vote into law this 10% increase in bureaucratic budgets and add to the pile of out of control spending pumped out by this Congress. With a strong majority, passage for any and all legislation has become a given once Dems break Republican filibuster. It will be with this one and it undoubtedly will with the healthcare bill at some point as well if it is allowed to get to that point.
As to the logic and timing of this bill, what a great call expanding government when Americans are trying to figure out why the federal government is the only business that is currently booming. Tell voters next November why the federal government is the only one that deserves a 10% raise this year.
The $1.1 trillion measure combines much of the year’s unfinished budget work — only a $626 billion Pentagon spending measure would remain — into a 1,000-plus-page spending bill that would give the Education Department, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and others increases far exceeding inflation.
The 60-34 vote largely along party lines met the minimum threshold to end the Republican filibuster, a legislative maneuver to delay a final vote on a bill. A final vote on the spending package was set for Sunday afternoon to send the measure to President Barack Obama to sign.
Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an Orthodox Jew who walks miles (kilometers) to the Capitol when voting on the Sabbath, wore a black wool overcoat and brilliant orange scarf — as well as a wide grin — as he provided the crucial 60th vote an hour after the tally started.
The measure combines $447 billion in operating budgets with about $650 billion in mandatory payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which provide health coverage for the elderly, disabled and poor. It wraps together six individual spending bills and also contains more than 5,000 home-state projects sought by lawmakers in both parties.
The measure provides spending increases averaging about 10 percent to programs under immediate control of Congress, blending increases for veterans’ programs, the NASA space agency and the FBI with a pay raise for federal workers and help for car dealers.
It bundles six of the 12 annual spending bills, capping a dysfunctional appropriations process in which House leaders blocked Republicans from debating key issues while Republican lawmakers dragged out debates.
Just the $626 billion defense bill would remain. That’s being held back to serve as a vehicle to advance must-pass legislation such as a plan to allow the government’s debt to swell by nearly $2 trillion. The government’s total debt has nearly doubled in the past seven years and is expected to exceed the current ceiling of $12.1 trillion before Jan. 1.
