Over the next few days, Congress will be considering both the budget for next year and the so-called emergency war supplemental. Both of these bills need to be carefully considered. All indications are that the Democrats in charge of the Budget Committee will be using procedural gimmicks and half truths to increase spending and raise your taxes next year. As a member of the Budget Committee, I will be writing more on this tomorrow and later in the week when the specifics of the bill are released.
The "emergency" war supplemental will probably be voted on this Thursday or Friday. As I mentioned last week, the Democratic leadership has tacked on over $20 billion in completely unrelated spending to the bill in order to buy votes from reluctant members. They have also inserted a minimum wage increase into the bill after they failed to generate the support needed for passage under the normal process.
The RSC has released a very good report titled "Perspectives from the Right," which reveals the extent to which the Democrats have dirtied this bill with special interest handouts. Brian Reidl in the Baltimore-Sun and James Antle in the American Spectator have also written two good articles about the irresponsible practices employed by the Democrats.
Right now, it remains unclear whether the Democrats will be able to muster the votes to pass this turkey...I mean bill. Be sure and check back as the week goes along. The Democrats will be trying to spend a lot of your money this week.