Posted on 11/22/2004 8:17:50 PM PST by crushelits
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A $388 billion government-wide spending bill, passed by Congress on Saturday, was stranded on Capitol Hill yesterday, its trip to the White House on hold as embarrassed Republicans prepared to repeal a provision that could give the Appropriations committees the right to examine the tax returns of Americans. Top GOP lawmakers disavowed the provision, expressed surprise that it was in the bill, and blamed both the Internal Revenue Service and congressional staffs for incorporating it into the omnibus spending package funding domestic departments in 2005. But Democrats -- and some Republicans -- charged that the incident highlighted the deterioration of a budget-writing system that is prey to such incidents. Unable to agree on how much to spend on basic governmental services, they say, House and Senate GOP leaders increasingly are resorting to a secretive process that leaves the public and most members of Congress ignorant of the content of huge spending bills until hours before a final vote. |
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I hope all spending bills fail
GeronL wrote:
I hope all spending bills fail
Here Here, I second that motion. And call for a savings bill. The budget must come in at least 10% under appropriations and the surplus must be used to 1. pay back social securtiy and 2. pay back the debt. This should be a perpetual law not to expire until both have been accomplished. I'm sick of pork, and money going to fund scientific research on the sleep paterns of spider monkeys.
We should find a copy of this spending bill. I bet in a few minutes of scanning it we will find dozens or many dozens of questionable spending items.
There is $1M going to something called the charter of the American-Norwegian Foundation. What a sickening waste on pork.
House-Senate Conference Committee Approves FY 2005 Foreign Operations Conference Report (As part of FY05 Omnibus Appropriations Conference Report) Figures listed below are subject to a .8% across the board reduction
A House-Senate Conference Committee has approved the fiscal year 2005 Foreign Operations Appropriations Conference Report. Text of the conference report and the accompanying statement of the managers will soon be available on http://thomas.loc.gov, and highlights of the bill are below:
FY 2004 ENACTED: $17.5 billion
FY 2005 REQUEST: $21.4 billion
FY 2005 SENATE: $19.7 billion
FY 2005 HOUSE: $19.4 billion
FY 2005 CONFERENCE REPORT: $19.8 billion
The Conference Report totals $19.8 billion, of which $19.7 billion is discretionary spending, $43 million is mandatory spending. $93 million is emergency spending assistance for Sudan. The discretionary spending level is $1.6 billion below the budget request.
and thats a small part of the budget
GeronL wrote:
We should find a copy of this spending bill. I bet in a few minutes of scanning it we will find dozens or many dozens of questionable spending items.
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app05.html
see under PUBLIC LAW
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