WASHINGTON, March 4 (UPI) — House Republicans Monday put forth a bill they said would soften some of the sequester cuts and avoid a government shutdown later this month.
The omnibus government spending bill runs through the end of September and doesn’t directly repeal any of the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts ordered last week. It does, however, move cash into several budget lines in the Pentagon and adds $2 billion to the State Department budget for embassy security, Politico said.
It also adds $344 million to the Department of Homeland Security’s budget for border security.
Overall, it sets federal spending levels below even the spending plan put forth last year by House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said her committee would move quickly to draft and pass its own version of spending legislation ahead of a March 27 deadline, The Hill said. That’s when the current Continuing Resolution authorizing all federal spending expires. Absent a new deal of some sort, the federal government would shut down thereafter.
Mikulski said she will seek to expand funding in areas Democrats prize, including the pre-kindergarten program Head Start.
In question is whether she has been out-maneuvered by House Republicans. Many of the changes they made in their spending bill were on the list of demands from Senate Republicans that Democrats had intended to use as bargaining chips, Politico said.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
I have to agree LVS. I dislike Obama with a passion but the Republicans too often have played into his hand. I am a registered Democrat but have always voted conservative independent. I do not believe any party has all the answers. To me Obama has sold out the party beliefs and is really doing more harm than good to the working class with his endless spending. He keeps talking about the rich but it will also be the middle class deeply in debt.I support the Republicans out of fear that if Obama gets control of the house in 2014 there is no end to the damage he could with his last two years in office.
I have read that in his first 2 years obama flew 172 times per year, thats almost every other day at an average cost of $180,000 per hour. How many cuts may have been saved if he would have just stayed home? His vacations to hawaii costs at the least 2 million just for air force 1 one way, that doesn’t include his private police force and secret service. Then in december he flew back to washington for 1 day then back to hawaii.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/07/16/obama-flew-air-force-90mile-campaign-trip/
http://www.factcheck.org/2011/07/the-traveling-president/
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/01/02/obama-returns-hawaii-added-cost-3-million/
vacation days per year…Obama 32.75, Bush Jr 127.5, Bush Sr 135.75, Reagan 60.5. Were you complaining about the vacations of the republican Presidents? Pres Obama doesn’t own a ranch in Texas or a vacation home in Maine or California. How would you expect him to travel? The plane comes with the job. This argument is on the same level as his birth certificate is. It only matters to Obama haters right wing nuts.
As for the Bush’s I have no idea because I wasn’t following politics too much back then but what I do know is that for Bush Sr and the first part of Bush Jr we were not in the econoimic crisis that we are in now. Knowing that we are in this crisis and the price of jet fuel climbing all I can say is obama is wasting more than he should. I also agree that the republicans and the democrats have screwed up royally and I think we should start all over in congress but the republicans or the democrats cannot stop obama from taking vacations every month, only he can do that.
As hard as you may try to make it an issue it just isn’t. Like I said before right wing nuts and Obama hater’s are the only ones who give a s**t about this. It is simply ridiculous to even try and make it an issue.
That makes sense then. Air Forces 1 costs $180,000 an hour to operate and thats just the plane. There was a couple times when the president was on one vacation and his wife was on air force 2 on a different vacation. At $180,000 an hour for 2 planes PLUS all the secret service and hotels for all of them, it all adds up to a whole lot of money that our government doesn’t have. It all makes sense that you as a democrat doesn’t see it as an issue. It is all a part of his spending habits. He doesn’t seem to think that spending millions of dollars is ok for him but they have to make cutbacks on our military. I am on a budget which means for me I have to make concessions, I don’t make 2 or 3 trips to the store when I can do it all in 1 trip. I buy off brand products to save money. I buy all my clothes 2nd hand, and NO vacations because I AM ON A BUDGET. The government needs to be on a budget, they are spending more than they take in. You can only borrow for so long before the lenders want their money back or just say NO. It should be a huge issue but it isn’t because democrats like to spend money and the media is in love with this guy so they ignore it.
The royal family is exempt from all laws and regulations. All the cuts that we are going to go through doesn’t pertain to them.
@maybe-As you know I am an Independent Conservative but I have given a lot of thought to what is now happening and in my opinion the Republicans have gotten just what they asked for. Instead of working to control Obamacare they fought it and lost and then continued to fight it into the election. They were so set on destroying the Democrats they forgot the first rule which is to fight from a position of strength. They could have went along with the Dems, sat in on the decisions and controlled the results but opted to make it a war and now here we are. The country in disarray and nothing being accomplished. Obama is what he is and I don’t like him but they let him get elected.
LVS you are so right on most of what you say here. One of the biggest problems is the fact that the republicans are already starting the 2014 campaign. 4 years ago their goal was to make President Obama a one term President. They failed. Now their goal is to make things so bad that they will be able to say “We told you so”. This is so sad. The bad news is that potentially 775,000 poor Americans may not be able to afford baby food and formula. The good news, if they want to buy a private jet they can still get a government subsidy.
How would you know if the government did shut down other than you wouldn’t see Osama Obama in front of the cameras going “duh I Don’t know how it happened but it must have been the Republicans.
I would think the least he could do is ground that VERY expensive plane he has and stay within Washington DC. He says we must learn to get along with less, spread the wealth around..well when he is going to be the role model? He and Michelle must laugh their heads off behind closed doors. We voted for it. Well we got it!!