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The
Hill…
GOP,
Dems trade blame on spending,
then pass six-month resolution
By Pete Kasperowicz
09/13/12
House
Republicans and Democrats
spent an hour blaming each other for Congress's failure to complete its
work on
2013 spending bills this year, then held their noses and passed a
giant,
six-month continuing resolution that will keep the government running
until
late March.
Members
easily approved the
spending resolution early Thursday evening in a 329-91 vote that saw 70
Republicans vote against it, along with 21 Democrats. Dozens of
Republicans
were expected to vote against it as a reflection of their complaint
that it
does not cut enough spending.
But
others were thought to oppose
the bill because it would allow taxpayer dollars to be sent to Egypt
and Libya,
which some saw as objectionable in light of this week's attacks on U.S.
diplomatic posts in those countries. Just before the vote, Rep. Dan
Burton
(R-Ind.) indicated his disappointment that money would flow to these
countries.
The
resolution puts the government
on a pace to spend $1.047 trillion in discretionary spending in 2013,
the same
level agreed to in last year's Budget Control Act (BCA). Over the
summer, the
GOP House approved seven appropriations bills for 2013, many of which
spent
less than what was allowed under the BCA.
Several
Democrats said those GOP
bills were the reason why Congress failed to finish its work on
spending this
year, and said the fault lies with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul
Ryan
(R-Wis.), who was picked to run with GOP presidential candidate Mitt
Romney.
"The
reality is that the
unwillingness of the House Republicans to keep their word is why we
have a
short-term continuing resolution before us today," Rep. Marcy Kaptur
(D-Ohio) said, referring to the agreement in the BCA.
"Rather
than keeping to the
bipartisan agreement, the Republican leadership rammed through the
House a
radical Ryan budgetary agenda that seeks to burden the middle class and
seniors
with the entire burden of reducing our debt, while giving millionaires
and
billionaires more tax cuts," she said.
Read
the rest of the article at The Hill
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