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16 Dec 2011 14:23

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Politics: Three major cuts in the shutdown-avoiding omnibus spending bill

  • one In the biggest change, the popular Pell Grant program for low-income students could run dry for as many as 100,000 students, as eligibility standards tighten.
  • two Foreign aid will decline, with a 17 percent drop in the operating budget coming to USAID. It’s part of a larger $6 billion cut coming to the State Department.
  • three The GOP won a health care victory, blocking the IRS’ ability to implement the Affordable Care Act’s provisions in 2012. The individual mandate hits in 2014. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Dec 2011 20:39

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Politics: House passes payroll tax-cut bill … with a Keystone-shaped catch

  • If Sen. Reid wants to hold up the jobs bill, he will go on Santa’s naughty list.
  • Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) • Offering a somewhat … uh, interesting take on the House’s passage of a payroll tax cut, which Republicans pushed through with a fairly large caveat — it would speed up the process of approving the Keystone XL pipeline, which was delayed until 2013 to give some time to examine environmental issues brought up by critics. The bill is expected to die in the Senate, and even if it weren’t, Obama would most likely veto it. The divided Congress is under the gun to pass a payroll tax cut and a spending bill to fund the government beyond Friday. Sounds like a fun week, all. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Dec 2010 21:04

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Politics: Yo Obama: Congress just gave you another triangulation opportunity

  • Remember how in 1995 when the government shut down? Well, guess what we just set ourselves up for in March? See, as a stopgap to avoid a massive omnibus spending bill from getting through the pipe with a crapload of earmarks, Congress agreed to set up a temporary spending bill that gets us into late Winter. (Obama should sign it before he heads off to Hawaii to be with the fam.) Which means that if Obama and the GOP are at one another’s throats come the Ides of March, the government could shut down 1995-style. Or Obama could switch parties and weird everybody out. Et tu, Brute? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 20:33

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Politics: Harry Reid kills omnibus spending bill over earmarks non-issue

  • what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s killing the Senate’s huge, trillion-dollar omnibus spending bill, which would keep the government running through September, in favor of a smaller one.
  • why Complaints about $8.3 billion in earmarks – which we pointed out last night are not a big deal – may make it hard for the bill to pass. It needs to pass by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. source
  • » Our point still stands: The problem with the bill was not the earmarks. The problem was that it was a trillion dollars, but a few senators have made earmarks the issue, which sucks, because the earmarks are a tiny part of the plan and if they would’ve gone to some random bureaucracy had they not been earmarked for the states.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Dec 2010 21:43

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Politics: Tom Coburn making big deal out of relatively small earmark issue

  • $2.2
    billion     the amount Senator Tom Coburn – the guy who held up the food safety bill – says Senate leaders are putting aside in earmarks; Politico dug these numbers out of his database
  • $1.1 
    trillion     the size of the total omnibus spending bill the Democrats are trying to push through; just pointing out for comparison’s sake, because it’s good to note source
  • » OK, Tom, you’ve made your point: Democratic and Republican leaders alike in the Senate are taking a lot of federal money and giving it to the states. But you’re trying to deceive us. Here’s why; see, a trillion dollars is a thousand billion by our last count. And Tom, who’s anti-earmark, is pointing out how wrong it is for Senate leaders to throw roughly two-thousandths of the entire spending bill back to the states, $2.2 billion which would get spent by the federal government otherwise. (The total amount, $8.3 billion, is still absurdly tiny in comparison to the entire spending bill.) To put it another way, Tommy Boy’s trying to make hay out of an issue that’s actually needle-sized. You know what the real problem is? The hay. Not the needle. (And in case you’re wondering, these earmarks were made earlier this year, before the current anti-earmark vibe hit.)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Mar 2010 22:14

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U.S.: A major spending bill gets through the Senate’s clogged arteries

  • $138 billion in spending shoved through, slowly source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Dec 2009 21:45

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U.S.: Republicans ticked about Dems’ spending bill; Dems pass it anyway

  • It is business as usual, spending money like a drunken sailor, and the bar is still open.
  • Sen. John McCain • On the latest spending bill passed tonight. The Senate pushed it through with little Republican support and lots of Republican whining. The $447 billion omnibus spending bill, with lots of Democratic earmarks, hits Obama’s desk next, but not without lots of political ammo for the GOP to bring into the 2010 election season. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

10 Dec 2009 21:44

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U.S.: Nothing like a massive spending bill to make us consider life

  • $447 billion the size of the massive spending bill that the House just passed
  • 221 yay, 202 nay the breakdown of votes in the House – some Dems said no source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Mar 2009 10:10

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U.S.: If you’re wondering why Obama wants to kill pork, here’s why

  • $410 billion size of the spending bill Obama has on his desk
  • 9,000 earmarks amount of pork the bill has; good thing he’s not vegetarian source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

08 Mar 2009 20:41

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U.S.: Obama’s budget dude: We’re avoiding the pork in the future

  • This is like your relief pitcher coming into the ninth inning and wanting to redo the whole game. Next year we’re going to be the starting pitcher, and the game’s going to be completely different.
  • Peter Orszag • Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, on the $410 billion omnibus spending bill that was laden with pork-barrel spending. Orszag says that the bill was well on its way when Obama went into office and the administration had no choice but to support it so the government could remain functioning. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 7 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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