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U.S. Congress unveils $1.3 trillion spending bill to avert shutdown

22 Comments
By Richard Cowan and Amanda Becker

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22 Comments
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Unless it has full funding for the wall, President Trump needs to veto it.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

Unless it has full funding for the wall, President Trump needs to veto it.

Yes, because we should hold the rest of government hostage for an inane wall that was proposed to appeal to idiots. Sound logic.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Before arguing, look calmly at the construction of the wall. It is being redesigned as a thousand mile see through curtain made from discarded nightgowns of all the current and ex-wives in the Trump family tree. Even the artist Christo would give his blessing to something so tasteful, no?

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Unless it has full funding for the wall, President Trump needs to veto it.

Trump: "Who's gonna pay for the wall?"

Audience: "Mexico"

Trump: "Who's gonna pay for the wall?"

Audience: "Mexico"

So will you finally admit Trump duped you? Why are you wanting the American taxpayers to pay for the wall when it was you and your fellow Trump supporters who screamed at the top of their lungs in support of a sovereign country to pay for the unwanted wall.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

When is the last time Congress placed a bill on the President's desk for his signature or veto? What is it they spend their time doing?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

"From opioid funding to rural broadband, and from student loans to child care, this bill puts workers and families first,” 

Except for those families who will pay for all the extra spending.

Is there any big country in the democratic world that manages to keep its spending under control, and in balance with revenues?

The USA is at least a big country with growth potential, and that growth should help to plug the deficit - but not if spending continues to be increased in lock-step.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

@chicanoJ So will you finally admit Trump duped you?

This quote from Trump, said to his fellow plutocrat Billy Bush, sums up Trump's sense of his followers:

'Billy, look, you just tell them and they believe it. That's it: you just tell them and they believe. They just do."

Perhaps it was more subtle than calling them 'deplorables', but the sentiment, the disdain for 'the people', is the same. True believers. Cult of personality.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

growth should help to plug the deficit

Growth was forecast, but it is nowhere near enough to plug the current deficit made worse by the recent tax giveaway.

No, the GoP will need to cut spending, specifically entitlements like SSA, medicare, and other programs. This has been the plan all along, but there was too much infighting to execute on the plan.

The GoP is sitting in a losing position now for the coming mid-terms. So, they are hesitant to pass cuts to entitlements because it will hurt them even more.

Loss of the legislature will be a huge problem for Trump because the representatives are the group that can recommend impeachment.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Every 30x20 foot section of Trump's wall should be marked with what programs were cut to erect it. Example: "Courtesy of Meals on Wheels". Or "Courtesy of Medicare Cuts". "Courtesy of Child School Food Program Elimination". And so on. The Wall is not being paid for by Mexico, suckers.

But Trump, according to several officials familiar with his thinking, was determined not to hand Schumer a win while Democrats stood in the way of his administration’s priorities, and he issued a veto threat that the White House never backed off from.___

A very much needed infrastructure improvement, which absence will continue to seriously adversely impact New York and New Jersey residents. All of them. Because the Duck "doesn't want to hand Schumer a victory." The petty bully boy pouts his way through another day.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

the current deficit made worse by the recent tax giveaway.

It was a "Tax not-take-away-in-the-first-place". (You can't giveaway that which you have not taken in the first place.)

Historically there is no positive correlation between income tax rates, and income tax revenues. Tax rates were higher many years ago, yet tax revenues are far higher now (but so too is spending).

So sure, this year the deficit will increase, but if the higher growth expected as a result of the tax changes does eventuate as hoped by the proponents of the tax plan, then higher revenues will be seen further down the track, lowering the deficit - all else equal (big assumption).

If this relative deficit reduction doesn't eventuate, e.g. revenues stay low despite higher growth, or higher growth itself does not occur, then yes the deficit will be higher in future, and the blame can fall on the tax changes - they ought to be revisited in such a case. But this is something that will be judged in 5, 10, 15 years from now.

In any case, the deficit is not just revenues, nor just expenditures. It is the combination of the two. Politicians (and voters) everywhere have a naughty habit of focusing on only one side of the ledger, and politicians have a notorious habit of spending more and more money that they usually don't have in order to "buy" votes. Tax revenues may have increased in 10 years from now, but it won't help the deficit if extra money in excess of that is being spent.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

"It is imperative that we curb Washington’s out-of-control spending addiction that has not been slowed under Republican rule," Walker said.

Deficit spending and increasing the already unsustainable debt is a bipartisan failure. There are a small number of Republicans who are serious about saving the nation for future generations. Most Republicans and all Democrats care only about staying in power and using their power for their own personal gain and ideological purposes.

Trump’s legacy will only be marginally better than Obama when it comes to mortgaging America’s future.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

New revenue won’t match the drop from the tax cuts. It’s a lie the GOP has been comfortable promoting. The deficit will spike and that’s what the GOP will use to say we need to reduce entitlements.

Unless it has full funding for the wall, President Trump needs to veto it.

Trump can’t veto Mexico’s budget.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Even republican proponents of the tax cut plan agree that the deficit will jump this year because of the tax cuts.

But there was a deficit even before the tax cuts.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So is China going to buy the bonds to finance the deficit? Trump didn't think of that, did he.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

New revenue won’t match the drop from the tax cuts. It’s a lie the GOP has been comfortable promoting. 

It depends on what happens with the economy. The Left lied that tax cuts did not generate increased revenues during the Kennedy and Reagan administrations. The only reason deficits and debts increased was because the rate of increase of spending was higher than rate of increase in revenues generated by the tax cuts. That’s a fact. Dems could never bring themselves to face up to that reality because it goes against their ideology.

At least Reagan’s deficits led to a tangible good - the end of the cold war and the threat of global nuclear annihilation. What did Bush and Obama’s much greater deficits produce? A lousy economy and guaranteed lousy economic growth in the future without drastic social program cuts - which we all know even the majority of self proclaimed “fiscal conservatives” will not fight for.

Trump did a good thing by cutting taxes and regulations because the growth needed to generate additional tax revenues is impossible without it - the proof of this is seen in the historically bad growth of the Obama years. But now Trump is undoing all the good of the tax cuts and other reforms by allowing the undoing of the sequester and jacking up spending.

The deficit will spike and that’s what the GOP will use to say we need to reduce entitlements.

Entitlements will eventually be reduced regardless of what Trump or the current congress does. Trump inherited spiked deficits. America is past the tipping point on entitlement spending. They will either be cut in an orderly and gradual fashion or they will be slashed when the laws of economics catch up to the US’s horrible mismanagement of its budget.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Unless it has full funding for the wall, President Trump needs to veto it.

Agreed, but overall, this is a very bad deal. With each passing days, the GOP are sounding more and more like Democrats. absolutely disgusting.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Wolf, tell me all about Kansas.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Kansas you say .... ?

I doubt our oldest Independent Republican wants to go there.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Is Kansas a place where they had a great time when the oil price was above 100 dollars?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Wolf, tell me all about Kansas.

That’s a fair point. But all things being equal whenever you tax something you will get less of it - and that means lessened tax revenue to the government. I can just as easily ask you to tell me all about the fiscal disaster in Illinois. Or the pension boondoggle in California.

Both parties in the US are one trick ponies. Dems always want to raise taxes and Republicans always want to reduce them regardless of economic circumstances. The timing of increases or decreases in taxation based on current and projected economic conditions is critical. It’s why Clinton’s tax increases during the tech bubble did not adversely affect the economy and why Kennedy, Reagan, and so far Trumps tax cuts have led to economic growth.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Clinton even cut taxes at one point didn’t he? Cap gains?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Republican and Democratic leaders in the U.S. Congress"

This is the main problem... we need to get rid of virtually all the Democrats and a lot of the Republicans.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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