Thursday, December 11, 2014

The Spending Bill



I absolutely hate politics.  The older I get the more I hate it.  I’m wondering where we will stand this evening if Congress is unable to approve a spending bill.  There are several trade-offs embedded in the $1.1 trillion spending bill that the Democrat and Republican negotiators unveiled Tuesday in an effort to keep the federal government functioning past Thursday.

One trade-off I do not support is the changes that would allow the wealthy to donate up to $777,600, from the current $97,200, to the national party committees.  This country is already run by big corporations and the wealthy.  This would further silence the average American from having a voice in our government.  I support campaign reform but this is going in the wrong direction.

Banks also won a rollback of a section of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law related to derivatives trading.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) blasted the changes to Dodd-Frank. “We all need to stand and fight this giveaway to the most powerful banks in this country,” she said. “These are the same banks that nearly broke the economy in 2008 and destroyed millions of jobs.”

Michelle Obama’s school nutrition effort was also targeted.  States would get the option to let schools skip out on rules requiring serving whole grains while the defense industry secured new funding for F-35s fighters the Pentagon didn’t even ask for,
I can’t wait to see if these mental giants can reach some kind of resolution before they shut down the government.  Today should be interesting.

No comments: