The Wall Street Journal calls it the “ugliest omnibus bill ever.” Congress will pass a 4,155-page bill most members will never read.
That’s more than three times longer than a copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
The spending bill is full of $8,500 per American adult. Or in other words, that $8,500 in taxes per adult.
But since only half of adults in America pay taxes, it’s really about $17,000 per taxpayer for one year of government spending, not counting military spending.
In fact, it’s such an expensive package that you’d have to spend $2.3 million every day for over 2000 years before reaching $1.7 trillion. It’s going to add $15 trillion to the U.S. debt, bringing it to $47 trillion.
Some senators are balking at the bill to be voted on on Thursday.
“This process stinks. It’s an abomination. It’s a no good rotten way to run government. We’re standing up and saying NO,” said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who joined a few others in making a statement on Wednesday that the bill circumvents the proper spending process, ramming through wasteful earmarks.
A few of those superfluous spending items include:
- $410 million for border security for other countries, such as Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Oman, and Lebanon.
- A specific prohibition on spending for border control for the United States’ southern border.
- There’s also $45 billion in military and other aid for Ukraine. The United States has already given $68 billion to Ukraine in earlier military, economic, and humanitarian appropriations.
- “If an additional $47 billion in Ukraine funding isn’t enough for you, the bill also authorizes a “Ukrainian Independence Park” right here in DC,” Sen. Dan Bishop wrote.
- $3.6 million for the Michelle Obama trail in Georgia, under the Department of Transportation’s budget.
- $200 million for “gender equity and equality,” with some funds to be spent to promote gender equality in Pakistan.
- $447,000 for an Equity Institute, stuffed into the Department of Education budget. That’s anti-racism funding.
- $3 million inserted into the Housing and Urban Development Department budget for an LGBTQ museum in New York.
- $1.2 million for student services for DACA students at San Diego Community College.
- There’s a $25 million funding increase for the National Labor Relations Board, a payoff to Big Labor.
- Child Care and Development Block Grant Program gets a 30% increase.
“Congress is jamming through major changes in public-land management; a plan to phase out large-scale driftnet fishing; new oversight on horse-racing; a restructure of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; changes to help Boeing meet aircraft-certification deadlines; and alterations to lobster regulation. That’s before lawmakers shoe-horned in sweeping healthcare changes on everything from Medicaid eligibility to the Children’s Health Insurance Program to Medicare provider payments,” the Wall Street Journal notes.
“The political process here is as bad as most of the policy. Major changes in law deserve their own debate and vote. Instead, a handful of powerful legislators wrote this vast bill in a backroom. Members can use the need to fund the government as an excuse to say they supported, or opposed, specific provisions as future politics demands,” the Journal says.
It’s almost certain that Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski will vote for the massive spending package that will create even more hardship for the grandchildren of America, who will have to pay for a spending package that was spent long before they were of age to even know they were being shackled by more taxes for a spendthrift generation.
It’s almost as certain that Sen. Dan Sullivan, who has tacked hard to the left lately, will vote for the package, although conservatives might still be surprised at his occasional show of independence from the liberal forces that are increasingly bending him to their will.
