Senate sets Sunday vote on massive spending bill

UPDATE: Final vote was Aye 57; Nay 35; Not Voting 8. Some of the Republicans are in Copenhagen with Sen Inhofe for the Global Warming fiasco where they are going to be telling the truth that anything Obama signs has to be ratified by a 2/3rds vote in the Senate. Dr. Coburn is back in Oklahoma preparing for his Mother's funeral tomorrow so please keep him and his family in your prayers.
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Sen Reid must think the American people are dumb not to see through his ploy of a Sunday session to pass this massive bill with almost $4B, yes that is billion, in earmarks. It used to work before the internet but no more. The American public has caught onto the games of this Administration.

Note that Obama's Rasmussen numbers today are at the lowest ever -19. On 23% of the nation's voters strongly approve of what the President is doing while 42% strongly disapprove. That should give the Democrats pause when passing huge spending bills but not Reid and Pelosi who will walk the plank for Obama.

This is an outrage and voters will show the Democrats what they think of their spending our tax dollars by growing government when a lot of people in this Country are barely making ends meet. The more they spend the happier they get. This runaway spending has got to stop but nothing will be done until we evict the Democrats from leadership in the House and Senate.

Senate sets Sunday vote on massive spending bill
Associated Press
9:20 am EST, Sunday December 13, 2009
Andrew Taylor,

Senate Democrats overcame a Republican filibuster to clear the way for a vote Sunday on a huge end-of-year $1.1 trillion spending bill that gives budget increases far exceeding inflation to much of the government.

The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 60-34 on Saturday to end the GOP filibuster that threatened to hold up the legislation. The final vote would send the measure to President Barack Obama.

The 1,000-plus-page bill brings together six of the 12 annual spending bills that Congress had been unable to pass separately because of partisan roadblocks even though the current budget year began Oct. 1.

The measure pays for Medicare and Medicaid benefits, and boosts spending for the Education Department, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and others.
Democrats held Saturday's vote open for an hour to accommodate Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an Orthodox Jew who walked more than three miles to the Capitol to vote on the Sabbath after attending services at his synagogue. Lieberman, wearing a black wool overcoat and bright orange scarf, finally provided the crucial 60th vote.

The bill includes $447 billion in operating budgets with about $650 billion in mandatory payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid as well as an estimated $3.9 billion for more than 5,000 back-home projects sought by individual lawmakers in both parties.

The bill increases spending by an average of about 10 percent to programs under immediate control of Congress, blending increases for veterans' programs, NASA and the FBI with a pay raise for federal workers and help for car dealers.

Republicans who fought the bill said it provides too much money at a time when the government is running astronomical deficits.

Excerpt: Read more at finance.yahoo.com