Big Spending Bill
Last night, Congress passed a $410,000,000,000 [$410 billion] spending bill. This bill contained over 8,500 earmarks.
The bill passed in the Senate with 62 votes, 8 of them coming from Republicans. More interestingly, however, 3 prominent Democrats voted against the bill. Claire McCaskill voted against the bill, citing her opposition to the earmarks. Liberal Senator Russ Feingold also voted against the bill for similar reasons, and even released this statement calling on President Obama to veto the bill.
But in my opinion, the most interesting Democratic vote against the spending bill came from Indiana Senator Evan Bayh. Senator Bayh is a very moderate democrat who is very popular in his state. He is a fiscal conservative who previously served 8 years as Indiana’s governor, balancing the budget all 8 years without ever raising taxes. Senator Bayh was so opposed to the bill that he wrote this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week calling for Congress to vote against it. My opinion is that Senator Bayh is positioning himself for a possible insurgent campaign against President Obama in 2012. If President Obama continues to waste the people’s money on wasteful and counterproductive “stimulus” and bailouts, Senator Bayh may be able to unseat him. Lets keep a close eye on this one.
Americanly Yours,
Phred Barnet
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