The House is such a lovely group of ne’er-do- wells’ it is difficult to believe this is the braintrust leading our nation. Lest I be too focused on those dunderheads in The House, The Senate will apparently follow them down the path of running grandma over with the Bentley. The President has already signaled he too wants to get the hell out of Washington, so he will get his signature pen ready versus his Veto pen and guess what, they will all be happy.
Don’t piss down my leg and call it rain.
Here are some of the highlights of what the Congressional House Republicans and Democrats voted on last night round about 11pm when most of the rest of us were fast asleep and paying no never mind to their high handedness.
Dodd-Frank, yes sir they gutted it. Don’t know what this is, shaking your head and saying so what are you? Well remember when the banks nearly failed in 2008 and we the people, the taxpayers, all of us that is had to bail them out. Do you remember that? I surely do, people lost their savings, their homes, their jobs and some of those people are still jobless and homeless. Remember that time, prior to this administration being sworn into office 9 January 2009.
Campaign Finance, can’t ever say these greedy SOB’s aren’t looking out for number one, no indeed not. Never say never, can you say Citizens United on steroids; if not learn to and post haste. They have taken out their best carving knives and shredded the McCain-Feingold legislation of 2002 that limited individual donors to $32,400 to either party this year would be able to up the ante, not by a few measly thousand dollars but by a whopping ten times (10X) the current limit to $324,000. How is that for feathering your own nest.
Egypt gets a $1.3 billion in aid, subject to Democracy and Human Rights conditions. Well my question is, who the hell in this country is fit to measure either.
The EPA gets another $60 Million cut from their budget, down in total 21% since 2010. According the Budget Office and gleeful GOP aides they will have to cut staffing, taking them to the lowest levels since 1989.
Cuyahoga River burns due to chemicals and pollution
Once again, the Budget bans the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to any current facility in the US and bans the spending of any federal funds to build a facility to house them.
Again, the US continues to spend billions to fund Israel, to the tune of $3.1 Billion in random aid in addition to $619 Million in defense aid. Not to be gauche here, however Israel has their own economy and it is fairly healthy, if they would stop trying to steal what small bit of land and peace remains to the Palestinian people it would likely be healthier still. There is no one starving in Israel, there is no need for us to continue to give them billions of our tax dollars every year, especially when those dollars could go to things we need here in this country for our own people.
I love this one, simply because there are so many of those Tea Partiers and Libertarians running about screaming, “Small Government” and “Self-Determination” and “States Rights”, I guess they 
didn’t really mean it. This lovely bars Washington, District of Columbia from legalizing marijuana. Now keep in mind there was a vote, the people of the District approved the initiative and like Colorado and Washington, citizens of the District should be able to smoke a blunt on their porch. But nooooo, the members of the United States House of Representatives forgot, they are only guests in Washington, D.C. not residents.
The list goes on and on, there is more. The cut funding on key education initiatives, they continue their ridiculous Abortion oversight moving it to the ACA to require all policies offered on the Federal Marketplace have a declaration whether they cover Abortions so people can decide for themselves not to buy that policy. They cut additional funds to the ACA, for the ‘Death Panels’.
There are some good things, expansion of sexual assault services for the military and expansion of Veterans Benefits. There is also the funds targeted to fight Ebola and funds targeted for the National Institutes of Health, some of which will go to brain and Alzheimer’s research.
Overall, though, this Omnibus bill is simply Congress working for a C- grade. They are hoping we don’t notice what they are doing and won’t complain. They are supposed to work on these things for the entire 24 months they are in session, dealing with each of the individual budgets and government agencies as independent entities rather than creating these huge Omnibus Bills in the Lame Duck session, two weeks prior to Christmas.
Don’t piss down my leg and call it rain.
Talk about a boondoggle Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) apparently got in bed with Rio Tinto to grab native lands. Rather than doing it up front and with full transparency, he shoved in to the NDAA before congress. This little land grab of his was hidden on page 1,105 and both the Democrats and Republicans hid it from everyone until they could hide it no more. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton would simple walk right in and start the casual destruction of 2,400 of the Tonto National Forest, which includes Apache Leap, burial grounds and other sacred lands to the Apache people.
These lands are supposed to be protected, but never mind.
Just let me say this, I am disappointed our President made a deal with the Speaker of the House on the Budget. Why in the hell did he do that? Doesn’t he know, doesn’t he understand these people hate him. They will never do a damned thing that he wants, not one damned thing. Mitch McConnell, the incoming Majority Leader of the Senate has already said, his first order of business will be a vote to overturn the ACA. Doesn’t he get it? What doesn’t he understand? Isn’t it time for him to say to these old, nasty men and women on both sides of the aisle, ‘if you send me this shit I will veto it without a second thought’.
What the hell is he waiting for? An invitation to their table? Hasn’t he figured it out yet, it is never going to happen.
The best synopsis of the Omnibus Bill: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/12/09/whats-in-the-spending-bill-we-skim-it-so-you-dont-have-to/
The best synopsis of the NDAA and Land Grabbing: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/ndaa-land-deals_n_6264362.html
QBG_Tilted Tiara 
Tell me a government Val that its not Raining in anything other than Lies.. As we say here they all P*** in the same Pot.. 🙂
Sending Love and Hugs and Christmas Greetings for a rain-free 🙂 Christmas although we now see another big Pot someone has P***ed off in Korea .. 😦 .. Oh they never learn.!
Blessings your way.. Sue xox
More tricks. Did you you your social security benefits are taxed on your gross income not on your adjusted income for IRS tax ? That doubles, triples what they deduct. They are planning to reduced government insured pension reducing what retires get which they earned their whole lives. 47% Americans pay no taxes and draw on funds for welfare(which many are truly entitled). Rich American and corporations pay nothing so entire working class funds everything. With job exportation that class is evaporating.
It is going to get worse I think Carl.. I missed the pension funding in my review.
You’re right – it’s crap. For the most part I disagree on what parts are crap, but the way our elected reps always end up cobbling together a mish-mash of special interest garbage makes most of us average Joes despair that there will EVER be real change in Washington.
I suspect Peg, all of us can agree how things are done sucks badly.
Politicians Suck…
Hey did you get my
e-card that I sent you
Val? It could be in
your Spam box my
dear friend… Well
get over there and
check it out next 😉
LOL 🙂 😉
Merry Christmas to you my sweet friend 🙂
Andro xxxx
Thanks for the re-cap on this bill. I knew some of the stuff that was in there but you pointed out so many others. Washington apparently works this way most of the time, but I don’t think laws should be passed this way with special things tacked on to the main bill so others will vote for it. Makes no sense to my slightly organized and simple mind. They will give President Obama hell on everything come January! Great post! Thanks for the links too.
Reblogged this on IdealisticRebel's Daily View of Favorites.
This has been one of the worst Congresses. The President hasn’t been able to work. It is disgusting that Congress has put what the people need and want in the back seat. All they want is politics. The GOP needs to care about the American people…the majority. Hugs, Barbara
The President agreed to this, before they even debated. In this case he is as guilty as the rest. This Congress is bad, the one coming in, they will be worse.
You are right. They will be worse. Hugs, Barbara
This post is very eye-opening to read as most of us don’t keep careful track of what’s going on in Congress. Yet it’s also very frustrating and depressing. Seems like it’s all downhill from here, what with the new Congress coming in.
Well the Senate punted the Omnibus Bill up to the President and he has already said he will sign it. I give it 2 years and we will be back where we were in 2009.
I am so sick of these guys. Where are their brains, where are their hearts? It is so hard to look at the news these days. I’m a fairly optimistic person by nature, but the sheer volume of shit that the GOP has foisted on us is a heavy load indeed.
But I have to say, I agree with what Obama said. This is what people voted for — (or in my mind got when they DIDN’T vote. And they deserve it. You, me and the other responsible citizens not so much.
We voted for him also, so he should remember that. We voted for him to be responsible and act in our best interest.
It’s frustrating when they pack so much into these bills and slip things past an unsuspecting public, no doubt. On the other hand, we want compromise from our representatives or nothing gets done and shut-downs happen. But I agree, this isn’t the way to go about it.
Well … to me … supposed gutty Dodd-Frank isn’t enough … repeal the dang thing … then repeal it’s predecessor … and its … and eventually reinstate Glass-Steagel … and then I’ll be happy.
Meanwhile, Congressional budgeting is really a battle of the sacred cows … protecting yours while slaughtering the others … thus no meaningful solutions.
I am with you on Glass-Steagel Frank. But Dodd-Frank was at least something, gutting it leaves us wide open.
The truth of the budgeting process is their only job is keeping us out of war (or declaring war when it is appropriate and needful) and doing the budget. They are supposed to do this incrementally, throughout their sessions. They are supposed to do it in small pieces. They are supposed to do it with common sense. This is their only job. Instead they wait, they wait until the last minute, shove everything into one single huge bill and then hope we won’t notice.
They don’t care they get a 2.0 (C-). They don’t care they are operating below the standards established Constitutionally or by the people they are supposed to serve. They don’t care because we don’t vote.
Budgeting has nothing to do with common sense or Constitutionality bembers of Congress is only concerned about doing as their party wants and getting reelected.
I know, but some one of these days we will wake up and hold them all to a higher standard.
Please?
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
I am disappointed with the President, this Congress, “this leadership”. The country is in dire straights, we are headed towards the iceberg & there’s no one seems to be in charge. This is beyond irresponsible, incomprehensible, disgraceful! It’s going to be s bumpy ride!!