In late January, the Senate passed a temporary spending bill that funded the federal government until February 8. The deal was that Congress had until February 8 to come up with a DACA deal or Mitch McConnell would open the Senate floor to a debate on an immigration bill.
February 8 is tomorrow and Congress has come up with a 2-year budget deal:
“Congressional leaders clinched a two-year deal to lift strict budget caps on defense and domestic spending, putting an end to a series of short-term spending bills and shutdown fights that have defined Washington the past few months.
The deal is expected to increase defense and domestic spending by roughly $300 billion over two years, according to administration and congressional sources, as well as lift the debt ceiling and include tens of billions in disaster aid. …
The agreement increases defense spending this year by $80 billion and domestic spending by $63 billion beyond strict budget caps, according to a summary of the deal obtained by POLITICO. Next year defense spending will increase by $85 billion and domestic funding will be boosted by $68 billion beyond the caps. The deal also includes $140 billion for defense and $20 billion for domestic in emergency spending over two years.”
No more government shutdown theater until the 2020 election cycle.
The budget deal raises the debt ceiling, dramatically raises defense and domestic spending and blows through the spending caps of the sequester that was passed in the Obama years. Yeah, so much for the “fiscal hawks” now that the Republicans control the White House and Congress.
What comes next? McConnell has promised to hold an open-ended immigration debate on the Senate floor next week. Strap on your seatbelts. The Senate is going to vote on any number of stomach churning proposals which will only matter if Trump approves of the final product and gives Paul Ryan the political cover to push it on the House.
UPDATE: Highlights of the budget deal include:
– $131 billion increase in domestic spending (to match increase in defense spending)
– $20 billion in infrastructure spending
– $6 billion in opioid treatment funding
– $5.8 billion for the Child Care Development Block Grant
– $4 billion for the VA
– $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health
– Children’s Health Insurance Program extended for another four years
All right, folks. Next week we man the phones and threaten our duly elected “representatives” if they pass any kind of amnesty, DACA or otherwise. This isn’t our first rodeo. This is exactly what we did when Bush and his circus of clowns tried to pass it and later when the Gang of Eight tried to ram it through. Don’t openly threaten them with bodily injury but make your tone as threatening as possible. I was living in Texas at the time and I told Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s representative that if she betrayed the country with amnesty that I would vote for anyone who opposed her, including the devil himself. I also told her I would find a Mexican candidate and personally work day and night to make sure SHE was replaced by a Mexican, because Mexican politicians have proven that they will do the one job that American politicians won’t do; preserve their country’s sovereignty by protecting their border. I also added that she should buy a private island with her bribe money, because she would not find a friendly welcome back in Texas.
Evidently, I was not alone in my approach, because as I watched the amnesty attempt on CNN, I saw both sides try to beat each other in voting against it. They looked so damned scared they were about to soil their undies. Let’s not roll over and play dead because Trump okayed this nonsense. So did Bush and we aborted that amnesty abomination then. We can do it again.
Time to raise hell, folks.
When I called the WH comment line several weeks ago, the lady on the phone told me “Nothing has been decided yet” in exasperation, as if that would mollify me. Too many people never have to face the obvious consequences to illegal immigration. I wish everyone could spend a day in an inner city school or in an emergency room. Then they would suddenly be to the right of Pat Buchanan.
$20 billion for infrastructure spending? That’s it? We need to literally spend 100 times that amount. The Interstate highway system, passenger rail, water lines, tunnels, bridges, airports, power stations, container ship facilities….they are all in unsatisfactory condition. But there’s always lots of money available to wage war on countries that won’t submit to King Kike, eh?
Are there still 28,000 of our soldiers on the Korean border?