In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up!
NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious. Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action.
On January 02 2013 21:48 TotalNightmare wrote: Out of pure curiosity I have to ask: Does this fiscal debate thing cause ANYONE WHATSOEVER to even THINK about changing the legislative system to something that works (I mean of cause people in politics not other people.)
Eh I still think its better then the parliament system that other countries have. I'd rather actually vote for my top leader and be able to have a government (even ineffective) when one side doesn't get enough or has to murder its political capital by pandering to less popular and successful parties.
On January 02 2013 21:17 radiatoren wrote:
On January 02 2013 12:03 Sermokala wrote: most of the stuff being said about the bill is probably just posturing before they actually get down to it. Remember even obama voted against raising the debt limit once and no one seriously (or at least anyone who should be taken seriously) thinks that he wanted the government to default on its loans.
The best thing for democrats to do from this would be to have the republicans split hard on the vote. They should if they have any self respect hope as much as everyone else that the bill pass's but if the vote gets split its going to cause a huge rift in GOP power in the house and allow the dems to pick off a ton of votes from weak republicans.
Its not like republicans don't have a history of passing tax raise's and then getting shafted hard when it comes to democrats never holding up their end on spending. Wouldn't really fault them for it seeing how much worse they gotta know its gotta get for them before things actually get better for republicans.
Gona stay up and see what the vote is like tonight. Shouldn't be too much longer now.
150 republlicans against and 85 republicans for. As far as a split goes, this is a big one.
As for the reasoning from the 150 republicans, some might have held high their pledge with Grover Norquist and some might have voted with other adverse deals in mind while actually being of another opinion. That fact is making the split even deeper!
Weak republicans voting for the compromise or extremist teabaggers voting against to hold the country hostage on their wacky wet dreams is the exact same thing.
Next will be a deal about the spending cuts and that one will be even harder for Obama to negotiate since the republicans already proved that they have a plan able to pass the house! Only moonshine will be the new senate taking over and therefore hopefully a less extreme deadlock than what has happened for the last 4 years!
Well we're gona have to see how the new congress shakes out. If bohner can keep enough loyalists in line to keep power Hes going to be able to negotiate on good faith with democrats and get bills though now that hes shown he can fight off extremist threats. If someone else gets the speaker ship its going to be a very bad couple of years with a fighting extremist faction of the GOP in the house not wanting to do anything with democrats and loyalist republicans trying their best to come off as not being apart of the problem in order to not lose their seat like they should in that situation.
Aren't the Republicans already doing that with their Tea Party "coalition"? The method is just different.
There is no tea party GOP "coalition" the Tea party (taxed enough already hehe hahah hohoho) is just a weird grass roots political movement that wanted to pressure the party to go back to being small government and lower tax based party instead of some weird neocon shit that George Bush was the patriarch of. Its a lot like what OWS was and would have been for the left if it had any intention of actually doing things.
It was more of a thing about the rank and file republicans telling the party what they wanted to be about for the next generation of the party.
And I just found myself agreeing with peter freaking king and Christie, Mr. boehner what are you doing to reality? Blocking the vote for sandy relief is one of the least classy moves from the house yet, at least have the class to vote on it.
On January 03 2013 06:52 dabom88 wrote: I'm going to introduce a subject not related to the Fiscal Cliff.
So Boehner is apparently getting a lot of criticism for not holding a vote on a Superstorm Sandy relief bill. Unsurprisingly, even Republicans who represent areas effected by Sandy are rather critical of him.
I personally agree with them. How is it that 2 months after Sandy that we still don't have a relief bill for those effected?
After watching those videos and looking at the rambling loonacy in the comments I forgot your question. If those people are truely representative of the human population and not just trolls we are going to see very dark times ahead.
On January 03 2013 07:17 Jaaaaasper wrote: And I just found myself agreeing with peter freaking king and Christie, Mr. boehner what are you doing to reality? Blocking the vote for sandy relief is one of the least classy moves from the house yet, at least have the class to vote on it.
I am no fan of the republicans, I am against most things they do, but this "relief" bill was much more than just sandy relief. It was filled with extra handouts ("pork"). Some examples of this:
$58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
An eye-popping $13 billion would go to “mitigation” projects to prepare for future storms.
Other big-ticket items in the bill include $207 million for the VA Manhattan Medical Center; $41 million to fix up eight military bases along the storm’s path, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; $4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; $3.3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and $1.1 million to repair national cemeteries.
Budget watchdogs have dubbed the 94-page emergency-spending bill “Sandy Scam.”
The bill would have spent 60.4 billion dollars, most of it probably not even sandy relief.
That said, I do not agree with what the house Republicans are doing. They should have proposed their own bill without the pork. I doubt that would happen because the Republicans are just as bad when it comes to pork. I do however think that the Republicans are getting unfair backlash on not bringing it up for a vote.
On January 03 2013 07:17 Jaaaaasper wrote: And I just found myself agreeing with peter freaking king and Christie, Mr. boehner what are you doing to reality? Blocking the vote for sandy relief is one of the least classy moves from the house yet, at least have the class to vote on it.
I am no fan of the republicans, I am against most things they do, but this "relief" bill was much more than just sandy relief. It was filled with extra handouts ("pork"). Some examples of this:
$58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
An eye-popping $13 billion would go to “mitigation” projects to prepare for future storms.
Other big-ticket items in the bill include $207 million for the VA Manhattan Medical Center; $41 million to fix up eight military bases along the storm’s path, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; $4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; $3.3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and $1.1 million to repair national cemeteries.
Budget watchdogs have dubbed the 94-page emergency-spending bill “Sandy Scam.”
The bill would have spent 60.4 billion dollars, most of it probably not even sandy relief.
That said, I do not agree with what the house Republicans are doing. They should have proposed their own bill without the pork. I doubt that would happen because the Republicans are just as bad when it comes to pork. I do however think that the Republicans are getting unfair backlash on not bringing it up for a vote.
I was watching an interview of Rep. King on television (LINK), and when the 'pork' in the bill was mentioned (around 4:30) he claimed that in the House version (the version the Republican leadership refused to bring up for vote) they had stripped all of the unrelated amendments from the bill, leaving it as only relief to the victims of the storm.
On January 03 2013 07:17 Jaaaaasper wrote: And I just found myself agreeing with peter freaking king and Christie, Mr. boehner what are you doing to reality? Blocking the vote for sandy relief is one of the least classy moves from the house yet, at least have the class to vote on it.
I am no fan of the republicans, I am against most things they do, but this "relief" bill was much more than just sandy relief. It was filled with extra handouts ("pork"). Some examples of this:
$58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
An eye-popping $13 billion would go to “mitigation” projects to prepare for future storms.
Other big-ticket items in the bill include $207 million for the VA Manhattan Medical Center; $41 million to fix up eight military bases along the storm’s path, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; $4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; $3.3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and $1.1 million to repair national cemeteries.
Budget watchdogs have dubbed the 94-page emergency-spending bill “Sandy Scam.”
The bill would have spent 60.4 billion dollars, most of it probably not even sandy relief.
That said, I do not agree with what the house Republicans are doing. They should have proposed their own bill without the pork. I doubt that would happen because the Republicans are just as bad when it comes to pork. I do however think that the Republicans are getting unfair backlash on not bringing it up for a vote.
I don`t know man, some of the stuff you quote as "pork" sounds like legitimate spending.
"$197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy"
What's wrong with this? Storms can do serious damage to ecosystems, and when they're already affected by human-induced problems (e.g. habitat destruction, overharvesting of fish populations, deforestation, I can go on) storms can have extremely destructive impacts that would otherwise not have been so serious.
It's okay to protect the environment. It doesn't have to be an oil spill to be an ecosystem disaster.Take Hurricane Juan up here. Spruce beetles, an invasive species, fucked one of our parks pretty bad. That, and a combination of lack of old growth forests from constant harvesting made it so that when that hurricane came through, it raped our already frail forests that had been weakened. Since its our fault the storm was so destructive, we have an obligation tottry to repair and/or mitigate the damage.
When I see stuff like that, it just makes me questions whether other stuff is more complex than it seems on the surface. I'm sure there is a lot of "pork", but when you get down to the complexity of reality, stuff generally isn't as simple as "DEM CORRUPT LAWMAKERS".
$58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
Well you have to remember source material for articles. Since its Freedom Works for the people who read that article forest restoration and fixing coastal ecosystems is "pork". Almost every single one of those I can either say it makes sense or I dont know what it is because the source material didnt explain it very well (CDBG specifically).
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
All of those seem related to the issue at hand except for the last one which isnt properly explained. Its not like they are asking for money to build a bridge in montana (well I think they tried but it was stripped out).
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
All of those seem related to the issue at hand except for the last one which isnt properly explained. Its not like they are asking for money to build a bridge in montana (well I think they tried but it was stripped out).
A few items seem questionable to me. Apparently to some in congress as well. It is a huge bill - $60B - so delaying its passage by a couple weeks to get it right might not be a bad idea.
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
All of those seem related to the issue at hand except for the last one which isnt properly explained. Its not like they are asking for money to build a bridge in montana (well I think they tried but it was stripped out).
A few items seem questionable to me. Apparently to some in congress as well. It is a huge bill - $60B - so delaying its passage by a couple weeks to get it right might not be a bad idea.
That seems like a nice idea but at the end of the day they are going to give them what they need and since this is sort of a time sensative issue giving it to them now seems like a good idea.
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
All of those seem related to the issue at hand except for the last one which isnt properly explained. Its not like they are asking for money to build a bridge in montana (well I think they tried but it was stripped out).
A few items seem questionable to me. Apparently to some in congress as well. It is a huge bill - $60B - so delaying its passage by a couple weeks to get it right might not be a bad idea.
It has nothing to do with ideology. It's really just a big Fuck You to Eric Cantor (hence telling everyone to refer all questions on the matter to him) and all the ingrates among the House Republicans. Boehner's career in any kind of leadership role is pretty much toast at this point, so he might as well flip the bird to as many of his "fellow" Republicans (oh and incidentally millions of disaster victims) while he can. He even unilaterally adjourned the House despite the fact that the vote was overwhelmingly against it.
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
All of those seem related to the issue at hand except for the last one which isnt properly explained. Its not like they are asking for money to build a bridge in montana (well I think they tried but it was stripped out).
A few items seem questionable to me. Apparently to some in congress as well. It is a huge bill - $60B - so delaying its passage by a couple weeks to get it right might not be a bad idea.
It has nothing to do with ideology. It's really just a big Fuck You to Eric Cantor (hence telling everyone to refer all questions on the matter to him) and all the ingrates among the House Republicans. Boehner's career in any kind of leadership role is pretty much toast at this point, so he might as well flip the bird to as many of his "fellow" Republicans (oh and incidentally millions of disaster victims) while he can. He even unilaterally adjourned the House despite the fact that the vote was overwhelmingly against it.
I know I risk sounding really wrong in 12 hours but I dont see a way in which he isnt speaker of the house tommorow after the vote. There is really no one to take his place besides Cantor and im not even sure he wants the job.
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
All of those seem related to the issue at hand except for the last one which isnt properly explained. Its not like they are asking for money to build a bridge in montana (well I think they tried but it was stripped out).
A few items seem questionable to me. Apparently to some in congress as well. It is a huge bill - $60B - so delaying its passage by a couple weeks to get it right might not be a bad idea.
It's why it was already stripped down to two parts, a 27 B part with storm relief and a 33 B part with the rest of it. Boehner could have called a vote on the first part. Christie isn't getting mad for no reason.
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
All of those seem related to the issue at hand except for the last one which isnt properly explained. Its not like they are asking for money to build a bridge in montana (well I think they tried but it was stripped out).
A few items seem questionable to me. Apparently to some in congress as well. It is a huge bill - $60B - so delaying its passage by a couple weeks to get it right might not be a bad idea.
It's why it was already stripped down to two parts, a 27 B part with storm relief and a 33 B part with the rest of it. Boehner could have called a vote on the first part. Christie isn't getting mad for no reason.
Sure, passing that part first makes sense. But there's still no reason to rush. There's already disaster relief money out there and reconstruction will take a long time and won't really begin until spring for many areas.
Wow got a text from cnn saying bohner got relelcted. Forgive me beacuse I'm busy and on my phone but I'm really surprised and happy at this glad we're gona have a government for the next 2 years.
I think democrats are gona be democrats and back out of any real spending cuts just like regean and the first bush. Hopefully obama can deliver on his words and make sure that healthcare and ss don't eat the next generation alive.
On January 03 2013 11:39 Sermokala wrote: $58.8 million for forest restoration on private land. $197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.” $10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief. $17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Most of these things aren't pork at all they're basic things that the government wants to pay for and groups into other bills to simplify things. I see a ton of cash for ecological things that probably sustained a ton of damage from hurricane sandy and certinly should be qualified as disaster relief. These are real damages that someone is going to have to pay for and at the very least the federal government can pay for that instead of the state which is already in trouble.
Most "budget watchdog" groups tend to be fiscal extremists and have an axe to grind about any sort of government spending trying to find fault in anything that the government does to get people more angry.
That's very questionable. Basic things the government wants to pay for are typically paid for within the appropriate budgets. Completely unrelated earmarks are generally inserted into popular bills (as is the case here) because that's the only way they'll pass.
All of those seem related to the issue at hand except for the last one which isnt properly explained. Its not like they are asking for money to build a bridge in montana (well I think they tried but it was stripped out).
A few items seem questionable to me. Apparently to some in congress as well. It is a huge bill - $60B - so delaying its passage by a couple weeks to get it right might not be a bad idea.
It's why it was already stripped down to two parts, a 27 B part with storm relief and a 33 B part with the rest of it. Boehner could have called a vote on the first part. Christie isn't getting mad for no reason.
Sure, passing that part first makes sense. But there's still no reason to rush. There's already disaster relief money out there and reconstruction will take a long time and won't really begin until spring for many areas.
It's not "rushing". Sandy happened in late October.
I've gone ahead and updated the OP with the latest news, and as Sermokala has mentioned, the biggest news of the day is Boehner's retaking of the House Speakership.
WASHINGTON—Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio) was re-elected for a second two-year term as House Speaker Thursday, despite a bruising two weeks in which the majority of his party and two of his top lieutenants voted against a fiscal-cliff tax law.
Mr. Boehner received 220 votes, compared with 192 votes for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who was backed by the bulk of Democratic lawmakers. While most Republicans backed Mr. Boehner, a handful of lawmakers voted for other candidates such as GOP Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Raul Labrador of Idaho and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor from Virginia. Mr. Cantor received three votes, the most of any alternative candidate.
Some backers of alternative candidates, including Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, both Republicans, were stripped of prized committee assignments in the new Congress as part of an attempt by leaders to clamp down on unruly backbenchers.
While Mr. Boehner will retain the speaker's gavel in the 113th Congress, there is little to suggest his next two years will be any more smooth sailing than his first term.
Yeah but if it's CALLED Sandy Relief then you can't vote against it, everyone knows that! Just like no one wants to leave children behind or have dirty air.
EPT
