President Donald Trump signed the massive $900 billion COVID relief bill and $1.4 trillion spending package, which Congress tied together for expediency, to keep the government funded through September.

(more…)

The House of Representatives had less than 24 hours to review spending bills, totaling 2,000+ pages and worth $1.4 trillion, to keep the government fund through the next fiscal year.

Despite the small time frame, the representatives passed the bill in order to avert a shutdown, which would have happened...

President Donald Trump released his budget for the 2020 fiscal year, which adds up to $4.7 trillion.

The budget includes spending cuts up to $2.7 trillion. The majority of that number comes from $1.9 trillion in entitlement cuts.

(more…)

The “government” is not shut.

A part of the government, about one-fourth, is not funded. Because of the payroll cycle, the people working in those sectors are getting paid, though there may be a delay in payment for non-essential workers for future work until a new funding bill is passed.

(more…)

Remember that awful omnibus bill the government passed last month? The backlash was swift and strong.

Apparently, lawmakers listened because reports suggest Trump and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) have started to look at ways to slash spending from the $1.3 trillion bill.

(more…)

In the early days of Legal Insurrection, particularly after Obama’s 2008 victory at least through the 2010 midterms, I often saw the word “eeyore” used to describe those in the conservative blogosphere whose main role in life was to spread gloom.

I also learned about a few types of common blog trolls:

(more…)

The Omnibus bill Trump signed today is a crap sandwich.

Sure, with over a trillion dollars in spending there are some individual items that could be praised, but as a totality it’s a monstrosity, a POS, a sellout to the worst of D.C. big spending.

(more…)

Congress released its 2,232 page, $1.3 trillion omnibus bill late Wednesday night, which is only about 48 hours before the deadline for passage.

That’s right. Lawmakers have basically 24 hours to read through the bill and pass it by Friday to avoid a government shutdown.

(more…)

Yes, the government is facing another shutdown if Congress does not pass a spending bill to fund the government through the end of September by midnight on Friday.

It may not be that easy since some Republicans have scoffed at the $1.2 trillion price tag.

(more…)

This is a good thing. We need to stop throwing buckets of cash at higher education.

The Washington Examiner reports:

Trump’s budget majorly impact student loans, but is it a bad thing?

Under the new budget that President Trump proposed on Monday, several student loan programs are slated to take major hits.

The Public Service...

President Donald Trump has rolled out the budget for 2019, written by budget director Mick Mulvaney. While it demands cuts to federal spending, it avoids balancing the budget within 10 years.

Infrastructure received the main point of the budget for $1.5 trillion and cutting red tape. Trump tweeted out that after the...

On Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul succeeded in blocking a vote on the so-called Budget Deal (which we discussed thusly Wednesday). In so doing, the federal government shut down at 12:01 AM.

An hour and a half later, the Senate invoked cloture, voted on the huge spending deal reached by both parties Wednesday...

Wednesday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Schumer announced the Senate had come to a budget agreement. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the deal “a significant bipartisan step forward.”

The agreement keeps the government open for six weeks and provides two years of massive spending hikes.

(more…)

Every year, Congress faces the same budgetary deadline and every year, drama surrounding said deadline engulfs the news cycle. You’d think at some point they’d plan ahead and sort this business out well in advance of the deadline, but it’s much harder to lambast your opponent and score political points...

While everyone is gushing over Oprah Winfrey, the Democrats in D.C. can hide the fact that they’re holding the spending bill hostage over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program.

Before Christmas, Congress passed a short term spending bill to keep the government running until January 19. The Democrats have made...

I’ve been keeping an eye on tax reform and ideas to make changes to 401(k) retirement funds have caught my eye. At first, tax writers wanted to tax your earnings before you place money in the fund. Then over the weekend they floated the idea of changing the pre-tax limit to...

Last month, I blogged how Congress floated around making changes to 401(k) retirement plans in order to make up for lost “revenue” due to tax cuts. That change was taxing the earnings before a person places money into the fund.

Another idea has come up and it’s even worse. Now they are...