5 Awful Things Congress Snuck Into the Omnibus Budget Deal

[n2doc]

On Tuesday, Congressional leaders struck a deal to avert another government shutdown and put off our next completely avoidable, 100% self-imposed budget crisis until next September. And while most members of the least productive Congress in the history of these United States are already busy patting themselves on the back for summoning enough courage and can-do American spirit to actually govern for a day, the rest of us shouldn’t start celebrating just yet.

If you’re a Congressperson looking sneak through something shady, the omnibus budget bill is the perfect opportunity since 1.) It’s 1600 pages long and very easy to hide things in, and 2.) Congress kind of has to pass it or the government shuts down. Again.

So naturally, there are a whole lot of shady things in there. Since this 1600 page bill was released on Tuesday night and we’re not magic, we can’t list every single one of those things just yet. But we can highlight the 5 most awful ones we’ve come across so far — everything from crazily wasteful spending to overturning a popular Marijuana Legalization ballot initiative.

5. $479 MILLION FOR WARPLANES THAT THE PENTAGON DIDN’T ASK FOR

4. $93 MILLION CUT FROM THE WOMEN, INFANTS AND CHILDREN (WIC) NUTRITION PROGRAM

3. NULLIFICATION OF VOTER-BACKED MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION IN D.C.

2. THE BILL THAT CITIGROUP WROTE

1. MORE BIG MONEY IN POLITICS

more

http://bulletin.represent.us/5-awful-things-congress-snuck-omnibus-budget-deal

[doc03]

1. What about permitting pension trustees to cut payouts

on defined benefit pension plans!

[BlueinOhio]

14. His plan

A few years ago the GAO found out that blue collar workers were dying before they could collect benefits so Rob Portman came up with a plan. Did he worry about worker safety or health care which would improve peoples lives and increase life expectency? No! He came up that they companies could decrease the payments to pensions by the percent of workers that would die and not be able to collect.

[doc03]

15. Fine but where is the outrage now when they are going to cut

retiree pensions because their plan is underfunded. Where are the Democrats, the unions, the media and AARP? I am in what I think they would
classify a multi-employer pension. I worked 1 week short of forty years and have been retired for almost 5 years and now I have to worry about pension cuts.
Weren't making concessions to keep a job since 1980 enough now they follow us to the grave. Just read in an AP article that the pension cuts
was bipartisan and a DEMOCRAT PRIORITY? WTF!

[calimary]

2. And that's a FANTASTIC way to frame one of those items:

"The Bill That Citigroup Wrote." That might just be the winner there. Fits on a bumper-sticker, easy for the short-attention-span crowd, and the dumbed-down ding-dongs out there.

[jtuck004]

5. "the dumbed-down ding-dongs out there" <- that sign it. n/t

[abelenkpe]

3. What about giving student loan surplus

Money to student loan servicers like Navient instead of using it to provide more grants and financial aide?

[aspirant]

4. This last minute threat

is getting old! The repubs cramming in all this nonsense and our corp media screaming GOVT SHUTDOWN, GOVT SHUTDOWN. EW goes vocal on a Wall Street attached gift but we have to dig to find all the other giveaways.

Obama threatened veto before, so where is he now on cutting food for infants?

Please keep digging. I can foresee the GOOD/BAD COP routine with these right-wing dems saying, the time ran out nothing we could do because the repubs outsmarted us again

[NewDeal_Dem]

10. Yeah, the bad guys always "sneak" stuff in, there's never anything the good guys can do they're

so weak and stupid, they don't employ people whose job it is to read the bills and know what the score is -- yeah, it makes me sick and tired.

[840high]

6. I am so tired of both parties.

[Initech]

7. $479 million for planes that the Pentagon didn't ask for and doesn't want.

And they'll probably go sit on a field in Victorville or Tuscon gathering dust while the companies that make these planes laugh all the way to the bank. And we wonder why the rest of the world doesn't take us seriously.

[B Calm]

9. and republicans are so worried about the national debt.

Vomit!

[Initech]

11. I seriously want to go scream at them!

HEY REPUBLICANS!!!!!! NEEDLESS GOVERNMENT SPENDING IS WASTING $500 MILLION ON PLANES THAT THE PENTAGON DOESN'T WANT!!!!!!

[daredtowork]

8. You forgot the cuts to Pell Grants

That shifted the money to pay off the private lenders servicing student loans.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/10/pell-cuts-cromnibus_n_6299092.html

If students didn't already have reasons to riot, they have one now.

Is there anything that can be done to avert this from going nuclear?


Ps. The Big Money is an increase from $30k to over $300k donor cap. Richie Rich owns your Congressional "representative" now.

[spanone]

12. our system is shameless.

[aspirant]

13. Maybe we should start now to clean our political house.

Let's focus on the dem compromisers in safe blue states and begin looking for and promoting candidates that will represent the people.Waiting till a few months before the primaries is too late. The right-wing dem money machine will have already churned out their candidates.

Let's watch these upcoming votes carefully and take notes.

[genwah]

18. Can we do that on Saturday? They still haven't voted yet.

To call your Member of Congress:
US Capitol Switchboard [phone]

To locate your Member on-line:
U.S. House of Representatives: www.house.gov
U.S. Senate: www.senate.gov

[B Calm]

16. K&R

[jtuck004]

17. Just a little more info about the Citi Bank-written portion of the bill...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/spending-bill-992-derivatives-citigroup-lobbyists

[genwah]

19. So, now that we know, what to do?

To call your Member of Congress:
US Capitol Switchboard [phone]

To locate your Member on-line:
U.S. House of Representatives: www.house.gov
U.S. Senate: www.senate.gov