Donald Trump’s second presidential term did not even begin before he and his allies started exercising complete authority over GOP congressional behavior.
With this weekend’s deadline to avert a government shutdown fast approaching, House and Senate leadership of both parties announced a deal to extend discretionary program funding through March 14. Long before Trump and his billionaire confidante Elon Musk scuttled the agreement, the resulting bill represented so many of the reasons that voters loathe business-as-usual Washington budgeting. Yet the specific cause of death may not bode well for the next four years.
In addition to averting a government shutdown — which had strong bipartisan support — congressional leaders attached 1,500 pages of additional spending, pork and red tape. There were significant expansions of payments to medical providers and roughly $100 billion in mostly bipartisan disaster aid, which deserved its own stand-alone bill and debate. Republicans demanded supplementing generous farm subsidies with an additional $10 billion bailout for farmers, even though the average incomes of farm households are well above nonfarm households. Congress even included a provision giving itself its first pay raise in 15 years.
Continue reading the entire piece here at MSNBC
______________________
Brian M. Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
Photo by ANDREY DENISYUK/Getty Images