oped: Golly gee Mr Wizard...Drudge was right...maybe sumpin' to do with a lil payolla and Barry boinking John on the back nine...dunno could be! At any rate the new congress needs to replace John Boehner as Speaker of the House when they convene in Jan he is a spoiled dove!
The Senate late Saturday voted to pass a $1.1 trillion spending package, clearing the measure for the President Obama’s signature.
The final 56-40 vote marked the end of days of drama in both chambers surrounding passage of the spending bill, although there was never a real threat of a government shutdown because both parties readily passed measures to keep the government open until Dec. 17.
A group of conservatives and liberals united to vote against legislation, but were opposed to it for different reasons, stemming from the president's recent executive action on immigration to a provision in the bill that makes it easier for banks to engage in risky trading programs.
The bill would fund the government through Sept. 2015, with the exception of the Homeland Security Department, which would be funded until Feb. 27. Obama said he plans to sign it.
Saturday’s vote took place after a day of political infighting on and off the Senate floor, most of it swirling around Sen. Ted Cruz.
The Senate convened for an unusual weekend session after the Texas Republican and Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Friday objected to adjourning because they could not secure an immediate vote that would declare unconstitutional Obama’s Nov. 20 directive to allow up to five million illegal immigrants to obtain work permits and federal government benefits.
The move, led by Cruz, angered not only Democrats, but fellow Republicans.
The GOP leadership, according to some aides, say Cruz “misplayed” his hand and gave Democrats an entire weekend to force votes on 24 of Obama’s judicial and executive branch nominations.
The Cruz maneuver also distracted from Democratic infighting. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had been railing against the spending bill, demanding that it be stripped of a provision that would roll back a key banking reform. She was critical of her own party for agreeing to allow the provision in the bill in the first place.
But on Saturday, Warren was suddenly silent, and gave up on her demand for a vote on an amendment to strip the banking reform rollback from the bill, which she voted against.
Democrats thanked Cruz for the distraction.
“A few days ago I was petrified of the dem on dem violence i was witnessing, but thanks to senator cruz that is all ancient history,” Democratic strategist Jim Manley, a former top aide to Reid, said on Twitter.
Republican leaders were particularly angry that the Saturday session allowed time to advance nominees they hoped to block, including Obama’s pick for surgeon general, deputy secretary of state, and the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Now, all three of those nominees, Vivek Murthy, Antony Blinken, and Sarah Saldaña, respectively, are on course to be confirmed Monday.
“Because of Sen. Cruz’s actions and Republicans’ inability to stop him, Democrats will end up confirming more nominees by the end of this Congress than we would have been able to otherwise,” Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said. “Including several key executive branch nominees and up to 12 of President Obama’s judicial nominees.”
Republicans are set to take over the majority in January and they had gambled Democrats would not want to remain in Washington D.C. long enough to confirm the nominees..
“We were trying to run out the clock on those nominations,” a top GOP aide told the Washington Examiner.
While Republicans say it’s likely that there would not have been enough time to clear all the nominees, if Cruz had agreed to adjourn this weekend, those backing Cruz said Reid would have held those votes next week anyway, particularly the ones to clear Saldaña, Blinken and Murphy.
“The nominees would have come up next week,” an aide to Lee told the Examiner.
Cruz finally got the Senate to vote on a procedural point of order in the legislation, just before final passage of the legislation.
Cruz said he raised the point of order because Obama’s executive action on immigration, which he and other conservatives call a form of amnesty, violates the constitution.
“If you believe President Obama’s amnesty is unconstitutional, vote yes,” Cruz said on the Senate floor. “If you believe President Obama’s amnesty is consistent with the constitution, then vote no.”
Reid said his point of order was “wrong, wrong, wrong,” and that the spending bill, “is not the appropriate place to debate the constitutionality of any executive action.”
Cruz lost on his point of order, but attracted 22 Republicans who voted for it, including Sen. John Thune, of South Dakota, a member of the GOP leadership team, as well as Rand Paul, of Kentucky, Marco Rubio, of Florida, and Rob Portman, of Ohio.
The Senate returns next week to take up unfinished business, including a tax cut package and final confirmation of the judges and executive branch nominations.
This story was first published at 10:18 p.m. and has been updated.
Matt Drudge says spending bill passed because NSA has 'dirt' on John Boehner
Matt Drudge of the influential Drudge Report news aggregation site expressed discontent over a federal spending bill that passed with votes from both Republicans and Democrats in the House.
The $1.1 trillion spending bill that runs through September 2015 is now up for a vote in the Democratically-led Senate. Many conservatives, including Drudge, are upset that the bill funds both Obamacare and President Obama's immigration executive orders.
"Obama got EVERYTHING," Drudge tweeted Friday. "NSA dirt on Boehner must be incredible. Chicago wins."
Despite opposition on the left led by Sen, Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and on the right by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., the bill is expected to pass the Senate.
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