What made the omnibus:
BORDER: $1.6B for security
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: Fed’l govt barred from interfering with states that have legalized it
RUSSIA: Money for election security and FBI counter-intel against Russian cyberattacks
OPIOIDS: $4.65B – that’s $3B more than 2017.@elwasson— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 22, 2018
What DIDN’T make omnibus:
NY-NJ TUNNEL: No dedicated money for Gateway rail tunnel Schumer wanted—and Trump didn’t.
OBAMACARE: Plan to stabilize insurance rates not included due to fight over abortion language.
SANCTUARY CITIES: No restrictions on their federal funding.@elwasson— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 22, 2018
Politics: the science of who eats… and who gets eaten.
FROM OMNIBUS TALKS: Pelosi, Schumer repeatedly proposed language similar to Tillis-Coons bill for the omnibus spending pkg. to protect Robert #Mueller, including at the leadership this morning, a Dem aide says.The aide said Republicans continually refused to include the language.
— Rebecca Shabad (@RebeccaShabad) March 22, 2018
Given what Paul Ryan and his fellow Trump enablers have been shoveling out to the rest of us, they’re all gonna spend their next million or so reincarnations as dung beetles…
[C]ongressional Republicans were jolted Wednesday morning by phone calls from White House officials, who confided that President Trump was unhappy with the party’s nearly finalized spending deal.
Trump had been up since dawn, keeping an eye on cable-television programs and venting to friends and aides as snow blanketed the executive residence…
Allies of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were alarmed, the people said, once again realizing that only Trump speaks for Trump.
They had been hammering out the details of the spending package with the White House’s legislative staff for weeks and were planning to give a brief update to the president in the afternoon, followed by final votes in both chambers later this week. The people familiar with the discussions were not authorized to speak publicly.
But as senior aides tried to sell Trump on the deal all week, he had hesitated to embrace it. In recent days, he has insisted to associates that congressional Republicans “owe” him more money for the wall since he has raised them millions for their reelection bids and signed the GOP-authored tax bill into law, according to one person close to Trump…
A White House official, meanwhile, said Trump loyalists who dislike Ryan and McConnell, such as Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), have only stoked Trump’s gut feeling that the spending deal is lacking. They also have told Trump that he will be criticized for such a large sum of spending…
Ryan arrived at the White House around lunchtime in his caravan of SUVs. Vice President Pence attended the meeting, as did senior aides to the attendees. McConnell joined by speakerphone.
Over the next 45 minutes, gathered together in the residence, they all made their pitch to Trump in support of the spending agreement, the people said. They argued that he was getting money for the border wall at a level the White House had been signaling was acceptable. They told him that he was also getting infrastructure funding — one of his priorities. They told him the significant tick up in funding for the military was included and politically popular. These were all arguments he had heard before, from his own senior aides…
Eventually, Trump sighed and said he’s fine with the bill — and the meeting soon ended, with Ryan ducking out into the snow. A reporter for NBC News snapped a blurry picture of the speaker being whisked off in the snow.
White House officials and congressional Republicans quickly moved to issue statements affirming Trump’s support, almost “wishing it into reality,” as one official said late Wednesday afternoon. In private conversations at the Capitol, aides shook their heads at another dramatic encounter with Trump, another time when he had nearly brought his party to the brink of a shutdown…
“Our” hero, the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver of Janesville. I’ve been working on this post for a good half-hour — has Donny Dollhands refudiated Pauly Blue Eyes yet?
Hse posted a staggering 2,232 page omnibus gov't funding bill tonite. Mbrs must process this overnight before vote likely Thurs. Few will have truly read the bill. By contrast…Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy was 864 pages. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens was 926 pgs
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 22, 2018
This omnibus – 12 spending bills rolled into one with massive plus-up -is a throwback to “Too Big to Fail” legislating.
I wrote few weeks ago how this formula doesn’t work much anymore. https://t.co/0sg7m6mdq6— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) March 22, 2018
Got $1.6 Billion to start Wall on Southern Border, rest will be forthcoming. Most importantly, got $700 Billion to rebuild our Military, $716 Billion next year…most ever. Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2018
As the Stomach Churns Open Thread: Budget Drama UpdatePost + Comments (82)