Republican leaders including our own John Kline hailed the new budget agreements as proof that they were finally getting a handle on the federal budget after a five-year binge of new spending with tax cuts for the wealthy that turned record budget surpluses into a stream of massive deficits. With such grand words you'd think they were really balancing the budget but the budget accord cuts less than one-half of 1 percent from a projected $14.3 trillion in federal spending over the next five years. Depending on the outcome of negotiations over as much as $60 billion in tax cuts, the savings in spending could vanish.
The bill also still allow states to impose significant new costs on health care for the poor, cut child support enforcement and foster care aid, and impose new work requirements on welfare recipients.
John Kline also voted for the defense bill where veteran GOP leaders maneuvered and engineered to add the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Drilling. It was a procedural tactic that pushed the Artic Drilling 'add-on' that had repeatedly been voted down on it's own. Knowing that moderate Republicans and Democrats would be unwilling to hold up legislation that funds US troops, they added on with the Arctic Drilling. Obviously the GOP leadership don't care to use democratic means in deciding issues or reaching consensus.
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