Budget bill unites tea party, liberals in opposition
WASHINGTON The lawmakers in what had been labeled a do-nothing Congress did plenty of last-minute lawmaking in the $1.1 trillion spending bill that appears to be destined for final passage.
While keeping the doors of the government open, they repealed a key part of the law aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis that caused the Great Recession, opened the door to huge new campaign donations to political parties and made it easier for some companies to cut back on pensions.
And in what might have been their biggest feat of all, the House Republicans and Senate Democrats who drew up the bill nicknamed the CRomnibus united the liberal left and the tea party.
A vote for this bill is a vote for future taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat whose opposition to the bill pushed it to the brink of failure in the House late Thursday, said on the Senate floor.
Erick Erickson, whose RedState blog is among the most popular on the far right, agreed.
Ultimately we got a clear picture of where Republican leaders stand, he wrote. They headed to the edge of the shutdown cliff, willing to shut down the government for a Wall Street bailout.
Locally, Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, opposed the measure for the very reasons Warren cited as well as others. Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., supported repeal of those controversial policy provisions but remained on the fence as of late Friday as to whether she would vote for the spending measure, which is likely to come before the Senate Saturday.
Reps. Chris Collins and Tom Reed, Republicans from Clarence and Corning, respectively, supported the spending bill, saying it is good for their districts and that it would avoid the kind of government shutdown they supported only 14 months ago.
And Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., backed it, too, calling it the best deal Democrats could get and a good deal for New York State. The local lawmakers all offered varied explanations for their actions, and for the odd political circumstances that led to the bills likely passage.
This bill is over 1,600 pages long and theres a lot of legislating going on in there, Higgins said. There are a lot of things in here that have no relevance to a spending bill.
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Budget bill unites tea party, liberals in opposition