John Kerry Complains About Reading Omnibus Spending Bill

Spending bill still tied in knots
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Worries over a possible government shutdown eased after Senate Democrats agreed to drop a massive omnibus spending bill that failed to garner support from Republicans. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday night that he would work with the Senate Republican leader to draft a short-term spending measure to keep the government running. Email Print Comment But lawmakers were racing against a deadline of Saturday at midnight, when the current funding me...

Spending bill defeat sign that Tea Party will have influence beyond election
Jon Ward covers the White House and national politics for The Daily Caller. He covered the last two years of George W. Bush's presidency and the first year of Barack Obama's presidency for The Washington Times. Prior to moving to national politics, Jon worked for the Times' city desk and bureaus in Virginia and Maryland, covering local news and politics, including the D.C. sniper shootings and subsequent trial, before moving to state politics in Maryland. He and his wife have two Children and li...

Senate leaders drops $1.3 trillion spending bill
WASHINGTON—After wrestling with -- and finally abandoning -- a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $158 billion for Military...

Reid Forced To Drop $1.3T Omnibus Bill
From a deeply saddened Associated Press: Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press December 17, 2010 WASHINGTON - After wrestling with — and finally abandoning — a 1,900-page catch-all spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders need to come up with a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year … What a

Extension Of Bush Tax Cuts Passes; Pork Laden Spending Bill Goes Down
So I’m sure you’ve heard by now. The House of Representatives passed the bill that will extend the Bush Tax Cuts, renew Unemployment Benefits for 13 months, and cut Social Security taxes for one year late last night. The roll call showed it was a total landslide at 277-148. Democrats had 139 yeas and 112 nays while the Republicans has 138-36 Go here to see the roll call and find out how they voted. The Democrats tried to pass a higher estate tax but that went down in flames also at 2...

Kerry Complains About Having to Read the Omnibus Bill
"Lets just chew up the time of the United States Senate keeping everybody up all night reading a bill rather than working on it," Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said sarcastically of the idea of reading the entire omnibus bill before passing it. Wild Thing's comment ........ Because it is other peoples’ money you jerk Kerry. Reading of bills should be mandatory. The bill should be read in English and Spanish, first one, then the other. It’s the PC thing to do. Maybe there should be a reading in E...

Will spending cuts erase the tax cut stimulus?
On the heels of the demise of omnibus spending bill in the Senate, where it was blocked by the very same Republicans who helped write the bill in the first place, David Dayen and Adam Serwer raise a key question: will the looming spending battle of 2011 end with steep cuts that erase the stimulative impact of President Obama's Tax Cut deal? David: There were two major things to move in the Lame Duck, according to Republicans: the tax cuts, and funding the government. They now got what they want...

With big spending bill's demise, is 'earmark' new dirty word on Hill?
Deficit hawks and Watchdog groups see Thursday's demise of an omnibus spending bill in the Senate as a turning point. A critical mass of lawmakers, they say, are committed to an earmark ban. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., holds a copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington Thursday. There was no last hurrah for Earmarks - known to supporters as “congressionally mandated spending,” and to critics a...

Republicans threaten to derail START
Key Senate Republicans are threatening to pull their support of the START nuclear arms treaty because they don’t like the way Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is handling the Senate floor schedule. On the second full day of debate on the treaty, two Republicans — Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and Arizona Sen. John McCain – accused Democrats of playing politics with the treaty by scheduling Saturday votes on Repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy an...

Senate leaders drops $1.3 trillion spending bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - After wrestling with—and finally abandoning—a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the federal government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $158 billion for mil...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Horseface) Complains About Having to Read $1.3 Trillion Omnibus Bill Before Voting For it
God forbid Kerry lose some yacht-time… “By the way, why would he have to read something . . . just having a clerk up there reading the bill, now there’s an act of stunning responsibility.” Kerry scoffs, “Let’s just queue up time in the United States Senate keeping everybody up all night reading the bill, rather than working on it.” Via Beltway Confidential ...

John Kerry Complains About "Reading" Omnibus "Rather Than Working On It"
"Lets just chew up the time of the United States Senate keeping everybody up all night reading a bill rather than working on it," Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said sarcastically of the idea of reading the entire omnibus bill before passing it....

Food Safety Dies With Spending Bill
Fri Dec. 17, 2010 10:35 AM PST Tea partiers can't exactly take credit for it, but it looks like the landmark Food Safety bill passed earlier this month that they fought bitterly isn't going to make it to the president's desk after all. Earlier this month, Congress managed to pass the bill with strong Bipartisan support—and over the objections of both tea partiers afraid the bill would send the government after their seeds and leftie foodie types who feared the bill would squash small farm...

The Perils of Constitutional Ignorance
The Food Safety bill is almost certainly dead. Why? Don’t blame it on GOP obstructionism — while Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) robustly opposed the bill, citing its unpaid-for $1.4 billion Price Tag, and its new (and ineffective, he argued) regulations, that didn’t stop plenty of Republican senators from backing it. Instead, it’s because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid forgot about that pesky constitutional requirement that all taxes originate in the House. Here’s t...

An Exercise For the Reader
What’s missing from this statement in today’s Boston Globe article on the death of the omnibus spending bill in the “world’s greatest deliberative body?” (Sic and sick): The House and Senate typically spend months on the 12 annual spending bills, but Democrats didn’t bring even a single one to the Senate floor this year, an unprecedented collapse of an appropriations process. To be fair, the article did get to the matter of Republican Duplicity and lack of h...

Republicans Stop Pro-Abortion Omnibus Bill as Reid Pulls It
Late Thursday, pro-abortion Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave up on trying to pass the 1.1 Trillion omnibus spending bill that contains numerous goodies for the Abortion industry. After realizing Republicans were unified in opposition to the measure and had enough votes to sustain a Filibuster against it, Reid pulled the Legislation. The move results in yanking more than $1 billion in funding for implementation of the ObamaCare Health Care law that could result in massive Abortion funding. ...

Now Who's Thrown Under the Omnibus?
My column today is on the Omnibus Bill. I woke up this morning to discover that the omnibus bill failed, thus nullifying my column. Some might say that the breaking news gods are punishing me for my hubris. But I prefer to think that it was the incredible force of column that caused the Democrats to crumble. The idea’s utter lack of plausibility makes it all the more appealing.  Next column topics: DREAM Act, START etc. The gold standard in contemptuous politics remains Emperor Caligu...

Senators McCain and Kirk Share a Laugh Over Death of the Omnibus Bill
Most days I just want to slap John McCain. Every day I'm grateful he's not the president. Every damn day. Not because he's a Republican, but because he's a nasty, mean man with a heart of stone and a hate on for every person who isn't white, rich and nasty like him. But today, I found myself wishing he'd vaporize on the floor of the Senate. For every person who pays tribute to McCain's selfless service, blah, blah, blah, I want them to watch this video over and over and over again until they un...

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill
WASHINGTON — After wrestling with — and finally abandoning — a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $1...

Senators Negotiate Spending Bill as Deadline Looms
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senate leaders were negotiating the details Friday of a must-pass measure to fund the Federal Government into early 2011, racing against a deadline of midnight Saturday to prevent a shutdown of government operations. The need for a short-term spending bill comes after Democrats conceded defeat and pulled a $1.1 Trillion spending package off the Senate floor late Thursday. That bill would have funded the government through Sept. 30, 2011, the end of the current Fiscal Year. ...

GOP Senate Aide: The Bill Wasnt Going to Be Read
At one point yesterday, according to a Senate Republican leadership aide, Democrats were telling reporters to “watch the floor” for action on the Omnibus Bill. GOP critics had pushed for all 1,924 pages of the Legislation to read aloud by Senate clerks — which would have taken an estimated 50 hours — but Democrats were planning to block this maneuver using a procedural trick. “The bill wasn’t going to be read,” says the Republican aide. “We were go...

Collapse of the omnibus spending bill: rise of the 'tea party Congress'?
Some see ideals of Tea Party movement at play in Senate, after a huge spending bill loaded with Earmarks is scuttled after GOP lawmakers thought twice about it....

Lawmakers stretching out Russia nuke pact debate
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's call for a world without Nuclear Weapons divided Republicans and Democrats on Friday as the Senate slogged through debate on a new Arms Control treaty with Russia. Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona argued that the treaty would be a step toward an unrealistic quest. "I think it's difficult if not impossible to achieve and I question whether it's a good idea at all," Kyl said, arguing that the goal and the treaty divert attention from dealing with rea...

Harry Reid, Republicans in talks on judicial nominees - Abby Phillip
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is negotiating a deal with Republican leaders to confirm a long list of President Barack Obama's Judicial Nominations that have idled on the Senate calendar for months, sources say. The deal could involve as many as 19 of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees who the GOP consider non-controversial, but would leave out a shorter list of more liberal nominees Republicans consider objectionable — setting up another potential disappointment for l...

Red Flag Alert: Democrats Slip Bringing Terrorists to American Prisons into Defense Bill
A surprising move by the slippery Dems, but clearly not exactly unexpected. Senator Mark Kirk (R, IL) is raising a red flag over the defense bill because the Democrat led House of Representatives and Democrat led Senate has slipped in a provision that would allow accused Terrorists to be housed in Prisons in the interior of the United States. Apparently the culprit responsible for burying the provision in the House defense bill is "Lame Duck" Speaker Pelosi. Whose side is John Kerry on ... ours ...