Congress Debates Spending Bill with 605 Pages of Earmarks Before Friday Shutdown Deadline

Congress Spending

The U.S. Congress is debating a spending package ahead of a government shutdown deadline on Friday, the day after President Biden’s scheduled “State of the Union” address.

Congress passed a bill last week to extend the first appropriations deadline to Friday, March 8 and the second to Friday, March 22.

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Congress’ $886 Billion Defense Spending Bill is $26 Billion More Than Last Year’s, as Debt Climbs to $33 Trillion

The $886 billion defense spending bill that the GOP-led House is poised to vote on in the coming days is $26 billion more that the previous year, as the national debt climbs to $33 trillion. The bill has received bipartisan votes in both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

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Republicans Poised to Approve Massive FBI Funding Boost in Wake of Twitter Files Revelations

Republicans are set to approve a massive spending bill which includes billions of dollars in funding for the FBI despite recently leaked information which found the federal agency colluded with Twitter to censor users.

The bill designated $11.33 billion for the FBI “to investigate extremist violence and domestic terrorism,” according to a summary of the bill by the House Appropriations Committee. The total is reportedly $569.6 million more than the enacted levels for the 2022 fiscal year and $524 million more than the president requested.

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Michigan Legislature OKs $1 Billion Spending, Mostly Economic Development

The Michigan Legislature approved a $1 billion spending plan primarily meant to attract critical state projects. The supplemental spending bill was passed Wednesday over objections from some Republican lawmakers that the spending package wouldn’t benefit taxpayers in the long run.

The state is spending a $7 billion taxpayer surplus.

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Michigan Legislature OKs $1 Billion Spending, Mostly Economic Development

The Michigan Legislature approved a $1 billion spending plan primarily meant to attract critical state projects. The supplemental spending bill was passed Wednesday over objections from some Republican lawmakers that the spending package wouldn’t benefit taxpayers in the long run.

The state is spending a $7 billion taxpayer surplus.

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Top 10 Tough Votes Democrats Had to Take During Vote-a-Rama for Massive Spending Bill

During a “vote-a-rama” on their $739 billion reconciliation spending bill that has hundreds of billions for climate and health care programs, Democratic senators had to take a series of uncomfortable votes on hot-button issues — particularly tough for those representing swing states.

The bill, which also includes federal funding for 87,000 new IRS agents, passed on a party line vote 51-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.

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Increased Federal Spending Gets Fresh Scrutiny with Ongoing Spike in Inflation, Consumer Costs

Skyrocketing inflation and consumer costs are hurting President Joe Biden’s and Congressional Democrats’ hopes to pass another major spending bill through the reconciliation process.

The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics this week reported an 8.6% increase in wholesale prices over the past 12 months, the highest increase in years. The federal agency also said this week that the consumer price index, another key tracker of inflation, is rising at the fastest rate in decades.

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Commentary: Democrat Spending Bill Taxes the Rich and the Poor

“No one got everything they wanted, including me, but that’s what compromise is. That’s consensus. And that’s what I ran on.”

That was President Joe Biden on Oct. 28 unveiling his latest $1.75 trillion spending bill—watered down from $3.5 trillion after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) refused to budge on the topline number—that Congress is expected to vote on this week.

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Democrats’ Spending Bill Creates a ‘Privacy Bureau’ with a $500 Million ‘War Chest’

A provision in the most recent version of the Democrats’ spending proposal allocates $500 million for a privacy bureau within the Federal Trade Commission, with little guidance on how the money is to be spent.

The bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, appropriates $500 million for fiscal year 2022 to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “create and operate a bureau” tasked with protecting data privacy.

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Commentary: $28 Per Day Triggers IRS Surveillance Program

The entire Democrat multi-trillion dollar socialist spending scam is bad for Americans, and bad for our economy. One particular provision that is especially terrible is their “IRS Surveillance” program, which would grant the government access to spy on nearly every Americans’ bank accounts. Their bill wants to use $80 billion of taxpayer funds to hire 85,000 more bureaucrats, nearly doubling the size of the IRS, to go through individuals’ personal banking information.

President Biden, and his colleagues in Congress, must have realized how unpopular this policy was with the American people, so they decided to make some “changes.” They created the impression they were raising the threshold in transactions individuals would need to hit before triggering the IRS to spy on their personal banking accounts.

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Democrat’s $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill Calls Mothers Both ‘Lactating,’ ‘Birthing’ Individuals

Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending package refers to mothers as both “pregnant” and “lactating” individuals on 11 separate occasions.

Though the spending package specifically mentions the word “mother” three times and the word “maternal” 50 times, the spending bill avoids gendered language and refers to “pregnant, lactating, and postpartum individuals” on 11 other occasions when discussing maternal health conditions or concerns.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Dems’ $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill ‘Existential Threat’ to Economy

Capitol building looking up, blue sky in background

One of the nation’s leading economic and business groups is warning that the $3.5 trillion spending bill before Congress is an “existential threat” to the nation’s economy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a six-figure television ad campaign targeting the proposed tax hikesin the measure that would be “taking more hard-earned money from small businesses and working families.”

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Study: Democrats’ $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill with Tax Increases Would Cause Economic Decline

House Democrats have unveiled a litany of new tax proposals to fund President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion federal spending bill, but a new report suggests the spending plan would shrink the economy.

The University of Pennsylvania’s business school, Penn Wharton, released a new budget model based on the Democrats’ plan that projects a major decrease in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the coming years if the plan were to pass.

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Senators Break Stalemate, Reach Deal on Capitol Police Funding Bill

US Capitol Police at The Supreme Court

Senators reached a bipartisan deal Tuesday on a $2.1 billion spending bill to fund the Capitol Police, National Guard, congressional security upgrades and resettlement of Afghans who risked their lives to help American troops.

The deal was brokered by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top members of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The two had been at odds for weeks over how big the bill should be, even as the Capitol Police and National Guard warned that they could run out of money in the coming weeks.

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GOP Unveils $1.4T Spending Bill Amid Post-Election Turmoil

Republicans controlling the Senate unveiled a government-wide, $1.4 trillion spending bill on Tuesday, a largely bipartisan measure that faces uncertain odds during this period of post-election tumult in Washington.

The GOP-drafted measure contains funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall and other provisions opposed by Democrats, but top leaders in both parties want to try to mount a drive to enact the unfinished spending bills — which, along with a separate COVID-19 relief effort and annual defense policy bill, represent the bulk of Capitol Hill’s unfinished business for the year.

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