Senate passes omnibus spending bill – U.S. continues to go further into debt

By JR Hoeft | Monday, December 14th, 2009 | Policy

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed the omnibus spending bill of $1.1 trillion, loaded with earmarks and spending for government agencies, while this week the House will likely vote to raise the debt ceiling.

The 1,088-page package contains over 5,000 earmarks, including provisions to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States, as well as provisions to allow taxpayer funded abortions and the legalization of marijuana in the District of Columbia.

Democrats would also like to raise the debt ceiling from its current $12.1 trillion level by an additional $1.8 trillion, as we’re due to break the current barrier by the end of the year.

Clearly government spending has always been the best way to create jobs over our nation’s 233 year history. Certainly our country wasn’t built on hard work, initiative, common sense, innovation, and enterprise. We always have looked to the government to make it better for us.

According to the Peter Peterson Foundation, 80% of voters nationwide rank “dealing with our growing budget deficit and national debt” a high priority, while health care reform (56%) and cutting taxes (51%) rank much lower as a priority. Additionally, 7 out of 10 voters support a bipartisan commission to develop budget, spending and tax reforms to be voted on by Congress. Check out their web site on the debt at http://www.knowthedebtfacts.com/.

At least some in congress understand the great danger the government is putting us in by its continued back-breaking deficits, including careening us towards a $1 trillion health care bill, by continuing to propose the SAFE Commission.

Both Rep. J. Randy Forbes and Rep. Frank Wolf from Virginia support such a reform. According to Forbes:

The SAFE Commission Act, H.R. 1557, would establish a Commission that would review federal spending and develop legislation designed to address: (1) the unsustainable imbalance between long-term federal spending commitments and projected revenues; (2) increases in net national savings to provide for domestic investment and economic growth; (3) the implications of foreign ownership of federally issued debt instruments; and (4) revision of the budget process to place greater emphasis on long-term fiscal issues.

That’s clearly a “long view”, but the right view. Unfortunately, for the past decade, Congress has wasted budget surpluses and has continued spending money the U.S. just doesn’t have; in doing so, we have threatened future generations with an unavoidable crisis, and may be doing more to eliminate our existence and way of life than Al Qaeda ever could.

The entire Democratic delegation from Virginia: Reps. Glenn Nye, Gerry Connolly, Bobby Scott, Rick Boucher, and Tom Perriello, as well as Sens. Warner and Webb, voted in favor of the bill. Rep. Jim Moran missed the vote.

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