On left, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) sits to the right of the man who has taken his job, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
The Senate passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill late Saturday around 10:00 P.M. ET that funds the government through next September, avoiding a partial government shutdown. Congress will now send the measure to President Barack Obama’s desk to be signed.
The Senate had approved a short-term stopgap funding bill earlier in the day, which bought Senate lawmakers more time to debate the separate $1.1 trillion long-term funding bill.
In the end, the Senate voted 56-40 for the long-term bill that funds the entire government until Sept. 30, with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, which is funded only until Feb. 27.
Republican floundered during a symbolic challenge to Obama executive action on immigration, allowing Democrats to ram through two dozen of Obama’s stalled nominees to various federal benches and administration posts before their majority is kicked out at year’s end.
Establishment Republicans blamed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for giving the nearly expired outgoing majority an opportunity to seek approval for presidential appointees, including some that have been long-stalled by Republicans.
“I’ve seen this movie before, and I wouldn’t pay money to see it again,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA). The Georgia Republican was referring to Cruz’ effort to defund ObamaCare a year ago that led to a 16-day partial government shutdown. Establishment Republicans frequently cite falling poll ratings during the shutdown and claim grave electoral harm will befall the party if voters blame the GOP. Of course, it were those very same media outlets and their pollsters that misfired badly on the election.
“I wish you hadn’t pointed that out,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). “You should have an end goal in sight if you’re going to do these types of things and I don’t see an end goal other than irritating a lot of people.”
Cruz pushed for the Senate to vote on Obama’s executive action on immigration, which did what even President Obama said at least 25 times he didn’t have the authority to do — unilaterally suspended deportations for millions of illegal immigrants living in the country. The vote failed Saturday night by a 74-22 margin, with 23 of the 45 GOP senators voting no the point of order.
“If you believe President Obama’s amnesty is unconstitutional, vote yes. If you believe President Obama’s amnesty is consistent with the Constitution, vote no,” he said.
However, while the media repeatedly discusses divisions within the Republican Party, the debate over the spending bill exposed bigger fissures within the Democratic Party.
At the behest of leftist Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urged members to oppose the $1.1 trillion spending bill and shutdown the government. Warren, who is now a member of the party leadership and widely thought to be the leftist alternative to Hillary Clinton, said the effort was aiming to preserve the financial regulatory policy known as Dodd-Frank.
The stand kicked off a showdown between the White House and the far left members on Capitol Hill, which turned out to be more than half of the Democratic caucus, despite the fact that 70 of them voted for the same bill a few short months ago. President Obama and Vice President Biden were calling House Democrats appealing for their support. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough also arrived on the Hill late Thursday to meet with members of the Democratic caucus.
The legislation preserves current spending levels, and includes provisions regarding the environment, funding for abortion, and the legalization of marijuana in the District of Columbia.
The second provision Democrats objected to — even though it is backed by the Democratic National Committee and the left’s congressional leadership — was the provision to raise the amount of money that wealthy donors may contribute to political parties for national conventions, election recounts and headquarters buildings. In fact, the provision was championed by outgoing Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), whose own PAC spent more than any other political action committee in 2014, hands down.
It’s an astonishing revelation considering the Reid-led Democratic criticisms of Citizens United, the billionaire philanthropist Koch brothers and Karl Rove. American Crossroads, Rove’s Republican-backing group, reportedly raised a little more than $28 million in 2014, but Reid’s group far exceeded those numbers by simply tapping Wall Street and K Street.
Nearly two-thirds of the money raised by Reid’s PAC — $34 million— came from big contributors giving half a million dollars or more, according to research of the Center for Public Integrity. Further, despite their objection to Citizens United, Democrats’ super PACs vastly outspent Republican super PACs in 2014.
Democrats lost control of the Senate in January because they took heavy losses in what was their second historic midterm defeat last month. Republicans will now have 54 seats in the Senate and the largest number of seats in the House than they have had in nearly 70 years, or during the Hoover Administration.
Dave Francis / December 14, 2014
DON’T TAKE OFF THE PRESSURE IN 2016.
It is a treasonous act by the King of the United States to ignore the edicts of the
Constitution and those who have played along as groveling surfs will be
remembered in the 2016 election. Twenty-four of 42
GOP senators, including all the GOP leaders, backed the $1.1 trillion 2015
budget that funds this majestic illegal amnesty. The people have to launch a campaign to blast the new Congress, letting
them know that We the People DEMAND they change the statute Obama’s imperial
executive order for amnesty is furnished on?
In 2016 the People must hold the Republics accountable and
not hold back for minute after House Speaker John Boehner PROMISED to
stop with whatever the law accords, to find any method—to defund as the illegal
alien amnesty, through the power of the purse or locate any loophole. I will be
watching, millions of Tea Party members and those who are indebted to our
sovereignty, the rule of law and our constitution for keeping us safe.
Some Americans will be distracted, but
not ME. I will be buzzing the Internet and with every chance I get will remind
every reader. THE PRESSURE ON CONGRESS WILL NEVER STOP.
Obama’s executive order is NOT based on the Constitution.
Therefore, all the new Congress has to do is go in and change the statute it is
based on. Disregard pulling the funding.
So, people THAT is the loophole? BUT BE CAREFUL
WHAT YOU SAY AS THE LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL CORRECT POLICE WILL BE
CHECKING YOU OUT.
Tell every Senator and Congressman that you have been betrayed.
That ALL people need to keep bombarding Washington at contact phone Numbers and
Mailing Addresses of Members of Congress at: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ or
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/US-Congress.shtml/
The TEA PARTY members are urged to pick-up the phone. US
Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121; (the toll free number is 1- 866-220-0044) and join other conservatives who are
committed to jam the phone lines on Capitol Hill (also melt the phone lines in
the Senate) with this simple message: Seeing you funded amnesty, you own it now
and the misery you have brought upon you as a taxpayer? Now you have sold out
to this President and we will be ready with our votes to remove all corrupt
politicians from office in 2016 who voted for his anti-middle class agenda.
The Senate’s 56-to-40 vote came as outgoing Democratic
Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid used the broad GOP opposition to the Obama’s
amnesty to split the GOP into two factions. This sarcastic old man who
engineered most of Obama’s imperial policies, should be held responsible for
costing Americans the $2 trillion dollars for processing and settlement of 5
million illegal aliens.
That divide came late Saturday, when Republicans finally
had a chance to vote for or against Obama’s amnesty.
The vote was engineered by Sen. Ted Cruz, who filed a
“Point of Order” claim that required the senators to say if they thought the
budget bill was constitutional despite not defunding Obama’s amnesty. Unless annulled
by judges, the amnesty is expected to provide five million migrants with Social
Security cards, work permits to let them add competition for legal jobs against
Americans, to put many illegal aliens on a fast-track to citizenship, and to
prevent the repatriation of nearly all 12 million migrants in
the United States. Some of the
consequences will be a surge in illegal immigration at the borders, because the
Border Patrol cannot be everywhere with limited resources. The last barrier of
being free and clear in the United States is the county
sheriffs, who have limited personnel and resources.
Obama’s unilateral executive action on immigration will make
hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million, illegal aliens entitled to
federal transfer payments. That will be done primarily through two widely used
programs — the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, and the Additional Child Tax
Credit, or ACTC.
These two programs are already among the most corrupt and
fraud-ridden in the entire federal government. A newly-released report from the
inspector general of the Internal Revenue Service confirms. The false returns
have gone from $4.7 BILLION to $6 BILLION, which Democrat Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada stopped further
prosecutions by the US Treasury Department.
Americans should challenge the new Congress and not forget
what they have done to every family, every grandchild as the illegal alien
invasion must be quashed? 92 million citizens and legal residents are jobless,
but these arrogant politicians don’t care as most are out for themselves. Those
that hit the road in 2016 will be gainfully employed by K Street and become
lobbyists. Americans will never own
their own country until we have ONLY public campaign money. Only the National
Tea Party is there to protect us from foreign invaders and defenders from the
same? The EITC is plagued by fraud, divulging for the first time that the ACTC
is even worse.
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