With the President signing into law a last-minute bill that came after the House and Senate struck a deal on federal spending, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) once again is taking an irresponsible approach to government, asking “what difference does it make” about what was included in the legislation.
Pelosi addressed reporters during her weekly press briefing Thursday afternoon and discussed the 11th hour budget deal that re-opened the government and narrowly avoided a default. The bill, which ignores the spending caps mandated by the sequester, includes several appropriations that have raised many eyebrows. But as Pelosi told the media, the goal was to pass the bill, not worry about what was in it.
“You know what, what difference does it make? Why are we talking about this?” the California Democrat said when asked about the spending authorizations. “We’re talking about a bill, as I said last night, I’m not asking anybody to vote for this bill on the merits. Let’s talk about the fact that $986 [billion] is not a figure that enables the government to work for the American people. Let us focus on the fact that February is not an appropriate extension of the full faith and credit of the United States.”
Signed into the law Wednesday night, the budget deal freezes current spending levels at $986 billion as outlined in the Budget Control Act of 2011. However, it ignores the spending levels the government is supposed to operate under as of Oct. 1 — $967 billion.
The legislation also grants appropriations not debated by either chamber: a $174,000 one-time payment to the widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died over the summer; $3 billion for construction on a dam on the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky that started more than 20 years ago; and $3 million for the Department of Defense to assist African leaders in searching for Joseph Kony, to name a few.
Though such spending items ignore the shrinking government that occurred under the sequester — and lessened the burden on taxpayers — Pelosi’s lackluster way of handling the budget deal bears striking resemblance to her attitude toward the Affordable Care Act when it passed Congress in 2010.
The Minority Leader jumped at the chance to provide universal healthcare to Americans, but, as she famously said just days before the President signed Obamacare into law, “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.”
As the law swings into effect, though, many Americans are seeing their premiums increase drastically, employers are being forced to cut hours for workers, and the White House has had to delay a crucial portion of the law — the employer mandate. Never mind the glitches, error messages and malfunctions plaguing the health insurance marketplaces.
The California Democrat did attempt to pass the buck to the Senate, saying she has her own “ongoing concerns” about Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) chamber. But, she continued, it was just about getting the government open again, regardless of what “incidental appropriations” were included.
“I have bigger problems than what that one appropriation may have been in the bill,” the former House Speaker said. “Nonetheless, none of it was a reason not to open government and remove all doubt that we were going to honor the full faith and credit of the United States. …
“So if you want to have an objection to the bill, there are bigger things to object to. But the fact is that we had to open government. … I’m not pinning a rose on this bill but I am giving it a vote because we have to open government.”
And we’re only just beginning to find out what’s in it.
Check out Pelosi’s comments here.
