Much has been made of the omnibus bill fitting within the President’s $933 billion discretionary spending cap. However, the bill contains at least $13.2 billion in additional gimmicks. Adding to the $6.4 billion in “emergency” spending added to the Defense appropriations bill signed a month ago, the total overage comes to $19.6 billion. The new $13.2 billion breaks down as follows:
–$2.0 billion in advanced appropriations in the Labor-HHS-Education bill;
–$3.7 billion in “emergency” veterans health funding in the Milcon/VA bill;
–$2.9 billion for “emergency” border security in the Homeland Security bill;
–$2.4 billion for various “emergency” provisions in the State/Foreign Ops bill;
–$1.0 billion for “emergency” drought relief (despite record farm incomes), wildfires, and others in the agriculture bill;
– $100 million in unprecedented “emergency” security spending for the GOP and Democratic national conventions, in the Commerce-Justice-Science bill; and
–$1.1 billion in other “emergencies”
This $19.6 billion brings discretionary spending to $952 billion, nearly as high as the Congressional Democrat’s original proposal. Note that these gimmicks are on top of the $20 billion in domestic spending that the President had already agreed to. There is no reason this additional $19.6 billion should not be offset.
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Bluey Blog | RobertBluey.com » All I Want for Christmas Is a Continuing Resolution // December 18, 2007 at 4:49 pm
[...] that violates so many of the principles he’s been fighting for all year. The bill is nearly $20 billion more than Bush’s top-line number when “emergencies” are factored in and comes nowhere close to slashing pork projects in [...]
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