Republicans Make Good On Threat To Force Lame Duck Spending Showdown

Shutdown Countdown, Part 4
I've been warning that the GOP may force a government shutdown as early as this month, and it looks like we're headed there pretty quickly. Brian Beutler: Before the midterms, conservative leaders were warning that they'd force a showdown over federal spending much earlier than expected: in the Lame Duck session, before the newly elected Republicans come to Washington. They weren't joking. Republican and Democratic leaders are now engaged in a brinksmanship that could result in a temporary shutd...

Shutdown Countdown, Part 4
I've been warning that the GOP may force a government shutdown as early as this month, and it looks like we're headed there pretty quickly. Brian Beutler: Before the midterms, conservative leaders were warning that they'd force a showdown over federal spending much earlier than expected: in the Lame Duck session, before the newly elected Republicans come to Washington. They weren't joking. Republican and Democratic leaders are now engaged in a brinksmanship that could result in a temporary shutd...

Lame Duck Lawmakers Line Up for Pork
By Danny Yadron A Bipartisan group of 13 senators who will be leaving Congress next month have their names on about $1.4 billion of the $8.3 billion in earmark funds in the Senate Democratic leadership’s $1.1 Trillion omnibus spending proposal. The 13 occupy a special place in the debate roiling the Democratic spending plan. Either because they retired or were defeated, they won’t be coming back. The omnibus represents the last chance they have to bring home the bucks to their constituents. An..

Closed for the Holidays
If the Congress doesn't pass a spending bill by the end of the month, the government could shut down.Republican and Democratic leaders are now engaged in a brinksmanship that could result in a temporary shutdown of the Federal Government. After the election, Republicans voted among themselves to eschew all Earmarks for two years, and now they have to make good on their pledge. Yesterday, Democrats' chief appropriator, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) unveiled what's known as an omnibus spending bill -...

Gingrich wants omnibus filibuster
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is urging Republicans to block the $1.1 Trillion spending bill that's needed to keep the government running after Saturday because it also contains $8 billion in Earmarks. Republicans, he told Human Events, "should pass a very clean, simple [continuing resolution] that keeps the government open." Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 If a new continuging resolution isn't passed before Sunday, non-essential government operations will sh...

What a Spending Bill Should Look Like
On March 11, 2009, while signing the the $410 billion, 8,500 earmark laden, Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, President Barack Obama said: This piece of Legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American People have every right to expect and demand. … I expect future spending bills to be debated and voted on in an orderly way, and sent to my desk without delay or obstruction, so that we don...

Senators vote to ban earmarks _ then grab them
WASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty-five senators, most Republicans, who recently voted to ban homestate projects are claiming hundreds of earmarks in an almost $1.3 trillion bill to fund most federal programs and agencies until next year. Republicans are calling the 1,924-page bill a pork-filled mess and accusing Democrats of trying to jam it through Congress with minimal debate and little if any opportunity to make changes. Some GOP senators voiced outrage but made no effort to dump their own earma...

ANALYSIS: A Look At Republicans Who Are Blasting An Omnibus Bill Laden With Their Own Pork
As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell requested and received millions of dollars in Earmarks for this year’s omnibus spending bill, but has now denounced the measure and plans to vote against it. Overall, Republican Senators have gotten nearly $2 billion in Earmarks into the omnibus, and yet because of concerns over “wasteful spending,” they are threatening to block the entire bill — which contains not only funding for their own projec...

Where is the Democratic pro-growth message?
Two Democrats take a look today at the electoral catastrophe of the midterms and ask a good question of their compatriots.  Jay Eisenhofer serves on the DSCC Majority Trust and Richard Schiffrin chaired Hillary Clinton’s finance committee in Pennsylvania, and partner on an essay at AOL’s Politics Daily that warns their party that they have lost the mainstream of political thought by focusing on redistributive policies and social engineering to impose their concept of fairness on A...

Senators vote to ban earmarks _ then grab them
Twenty-five senators, most Republicans, who recently voted to ban homestate projects are claiming hundreds of Earmarks in an almost $1.3 Trillion bill to fund most federal programs and agencies until next year. Republicans are calling the 1,924-page bill a pork-filled mess and accusing Democrats of trying to jam it through Congress with minimal debate and little if any opportunity to make changes. Some GOP senators voiced outrage but made no effort to dump their own Earmarks from the Legislation...

The Choice: 1-Page Short-Term Continuing Resolution Or Dems Bloated 2,000-pg Omnibus
Disgusted, The Wall Street Journal editors write today, “The 111th Congress began with an $814 billion stimulus that blew out the federal Balance Sheet, so we suppose it’s only fitting that the Members want to exit by passing a 1,924-page, $1.2 Trillion omnibus spending bill. The worst Congress in modern history is true to its essence to the bitter end.” They add, “Democrats have had 11 months to write a Budget for fiscal 2011, which began on October 1. But Majority Leade...

Levin and McCain want stripped-down defense bill added to lame-duck agenda
The Senate added another item to its busy lame-duck schedule after the top members of the Senate Armed Services Committee announced a stripped-down defense authorization bill. Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman and ranking member of the panel, said they'd reached an agreement on a defense bill from which Controversial provisions — like a Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" — had been removed. The pair said they hoped to move the Legislation through the Senat...

Senate Republicans threaten to derail lame duck session over $1.2-trillion omnibus spending bill
After a few brief days of Washington comity, Senate Republicans snapped back on Wednesday, sharply attacking a $1.2-trillion omnibus spending bill and threatening to derail what’s left of the Lame Duck congressional session. FOR THE RECORD: The headline on an earlier version of this article said the spending bill contained hundreds of billions of dollars in Earmarks. The bill contains earmarks totaling $8 billion. Republicans negotiated a Compromise with the White House to extend the Bush...

Groups Urge Issa to Renew Support for Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act
In an article in The Washington Post published today, a spokesperson for Mr. Issa cited "new areas of concern that have been raised by the Wikileaks [disclosures]," and said Mr. Issa thinks S. 372 should be considered when the Republicans control the House next year. But as pointed out in today's letter, "Many issues that have been raised by Wikileaks have nothing to do with this bill and efforts to draw a connection between Wikileaks and this good government measure are misguided....S. 372 is...

If necessary, shut down the lame duck over omnibus bill
The top headline from the Drudge Report this morning described the $1.27 Trillion 1,924 page omnibus spending bill Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced as one last feast.  Once you read some of the details though, you will probably describe this in far more vulgar terms. The new omnibus bill contains about $8 billion worth of Earmarks. In the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill, for example, there is a $6,000,000 earmark for the Mississippi Polymer Institute at the University of...

President Obama Backs Pork-Laden, Job-Killing Spending Binge Despite Promises to End Earmark Spending
Yesterday, the Obama Administration “told Congress to pass” a $1.1 Trillion-dollar spending bill stuffed with nearly 7,000 Earmarks that will cost Taxpayers more than $8 billion, according to an ABC News report. The President’s support for the massive spending bill represents a complete reversal from his position just one month ago, when he said he would work to “end earmark spending.” While the White House is already signaling that the President will sign the bill, he still ha

BREAKING on earmarks
Washington (CNN) - Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid defended Senate Earmarks Thursday, criticizing Republicans who voice opposition to the legislative provisions that direct approved funds to a specific project, but then add their own spending measures to Legislation. "I'll bet if you went to 'h' in the dictionary and found hypocrite, under that would be people who ask for earmarks, but vote against them," Reid said. The Nevada senator spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill amidst ongoing nego...

Gates pushes for omnibus spending bill despite earmarks
The Obama Administration is urging Congress to adopt a $1.2 Trillion spending bill that includes more than 6,700 Earmarks, despite the president's strong criticism of such projects since Election Day. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a press briefing Thursday that while he dislikes many of the Earmarks, he would prefer Congress pass this Legislation rather than a stop-gap measure approved in the House last week that would not provide the Pentagon as much funding. Senate Democrats are con...

Shutdown Showdown: Congress needs to agree on a way to fund the government by Saturday
Chris Moody is a political reporter for the Daily Caller from San Diego, California. Before joining the Daily Caller, Moody was the Manager of New Media at a Think Tank in Washington DC, a freelance writer and a commercial fisherman in Alaska. He is currently a graduate Student at Johns Hopkins University and lives in downtown Washington DC. There is little Christmas cheer on Capitol Hill this week, as Republicans and Democrats prepare for another showdown, this time involving a $1.1 Trillion Om...

Michelle Malkin Reveals Democrats Massive Lame Duck Land Grab (Video)
“In the waning few days of the 111th Congress, the Democrats seem obsessed with forcing - just as they forced ObamaCare down our unwilling throats - one monstrosity after another upon us… Permit me to state the obvious: These congressional leaders have nothing but contempt for you, for the Constitution and for common sense. They’re drunk on power, and they live for self-aggrandizement and personal enrichment. One might ask, how do they sleep at night? Their conscien...

Malkin: The Dems' Lame-Duck Land Grab
Environmentalists hate sprawl -- except when it comes to the size of their expansive pet Legislation on Capitol Hill. In a last-ditch Lame Duck push, eco-lobbyists have been furiously pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to pass a monstrous 327-page omnibus government lands bill crammed with more than 120 separate measures to lock up vast swaths of wilderness areas. Despite the time crunch, Senate Democrats in search of 60 votes are working behind the scenes to buy off green Rep...

Dems' Huge Agenda for Lame Duck Congress
Tax Cuts, a massive spending bill and a nuclear arms treaty are just some of the heavy items left for the Lame Duck session of Congress. Even as Christmas approaches, Democrats have no plans of slowing down. As the session waddles on, plenty of feathers have been ruffled. The U.S. Senate voted to extend the Bush tax cuts to all Taxpayers. However, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is still pushing a hefty agenda -- including a massive 1,900 page, $1.2 Trillion spending bill. The measure is ...

How Harry Reid Ruined Christmas Break
Harry Reid gets it: We are in session, if necessary, up to January 5th. That is the clock our Republican colleagues need to run out. It's a long clock. He can only pass things (barring a successful bluff to go nuclear, which is highly unlikely at this point) if he has 60 votes (and more for START), and he can only pass as many things as he can pack in to the space available. But if his statement today is for real, then he's not going to leave anything on the table. I should note that this is a...

Has President Obama Kept His Promises to Native Americans?
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza President Barack Obama meets with tribal leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Dec. 15, 2010. President Obama last year promised Native American leaders from across the country that his administration would work to improve what he called the Federal Government’s history of broken promises to tribal nations. On Thursday, he will address the leaders again amid praise from some of them that his administration has moved aggressively on their be...

John Cornyn Up In Arms Over All The Earmarks Not Requested By John Cornyn
The Lame Duck session of Congress wends on and on! Today, the bitter battle is enjoined over the omnibus Budget bill, and the chief complainant is Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). See, Cornyn is very upset about all of the Earmarks that are in the bill. And it's easy to see why! A few weeks ago, he was one of 39 senators who voted to ban the practice entirely, in an effort that was ultimately unsuccessful. Of course, as I've already documented, many of the people who have long complained about earm...