Word has come from our sources on Capitol Hill that Speaker of the House Mike “The Disappointment” Johnson is about to cave to Democrats and put another giant year-end
spending bill on the House Floor.
Worse still, in order to dragoon reluctant Republican House Members into voting for it the desperately needed supplemental spending for hurricane relief in Florida and the Carolinas – home to some of the GOP staunchest fiscal conservatives – has been buried in the bill, along with billions in as yet undisclosed pork.
This government by fiscal crisis has become a congressional habit no matter which party is in power. It obviates any need for transparency or accountability and allows members to avoid responsibility for adding more billions – or will it be trillions this time – to our already unconscionable national debt.
Fortunately, The Hill reports Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is threatening to hold up spending package that congressional leaders claim is needed to pass by the end of the day Friday to avoid a government shutdown, that is unless leaders in Congress agree to vote on amendments to offset the cost of new spending in the proposal.
Paul has significant leverage to force colleagues to vote on spending cuts because congressional leaders are late, as usual, in unveiling the continuing resolution, which is expected to fund the government until March 14.
Senator Paul says he won’t yield back time on the floor unless Schumer guarantees fiscal hawks a full debate and opportunity to vote on amendments to offset the cost of new spending in the proposal.
“I can’t anticipate giving any time of consent to condense time without debate and debate means amendments. We’ll probably put forward some pay-fors,” Paul told The Hill, flagging green-energy subsidies as spending that could be cut to offset the cost of disaster relief for North Carolina and other states hit hard by recent hurricanes.
“There are some big existing pay-fors and I think they should be forced to decide: Do you want to help the people in Asheville or do you want to help green-energy companies, multimillion-dollar companies with subsidies for green energy? There’s about $4 billion out there in that,” he said.
The Hill reported conservatives in both chambers are furious they still haven’t seen the details of the continuing resolution, which will extend government funding as well as provide new funding for disaster relief, payments to farmers and other programs that have vocal constituencies.
“I don’t know what all kinds of schemes they’re hatching here,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “I did hear a word of scuttlebutt that the House Republicans aren’t real happy with what the supposed final deal was.”
The Capitol Switchboard is (202-224-3121), call your Senators and Representative TODAY to demand that they vote NO on any year-end Continuing Resolution that does more than fund the government at existing levels until the new Republican trifecta is sworn in.
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Spending bill
Senator Rand Paul
Speaker Mike Johnson
Supplemental spending for hurricane relief
transparency
national debt
Social security benefits tax
continuing resolution
Chuck Schumer
green energy subsidies