What You Need to Know About a Budget Deal
Congress was able to pass a budget agreement early Friday morning following a brief government shutdown that Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told you about – the second shutdown in three weeks. President Trump signed the law shortly thereafter.
According to The New York Times, the two-year deal increases the domestic and military spending cap by $ 300 billion and lifts the federal debt cap until March 2019 . It provides federal government funding for six weeks, so we can all come together and do it again in just under two months.
Here’s what you need to know.
Why did Rand Paul shut down the government?
Paul protested the addition of hundreds of billions to the federal deficit and wanted to vote on an amendment to maintain budget constraints, which the leaders rejected. In his wide-ranging speech in the Senate Hall on Thursday, Paul criticized government waste, in particular from the National Science Foundation and spending in Afghanistan. It is unclear why this deficit widening bill angered Paul so much when he voted in a recent tax bill that is estimated to increase the deficit by about $ 1.4 trillion over ten years.
What’s in the bill?
The budget is more rough and broken down by about $ 165 billion for the military and $ 131 billion for the interior: funding for abstinence alone education, $ 6 billion for research grants and prevention programs to combat the opioid crisis. and over $ 80 billion in disaster relief assistance in Florida, Puerto Rico and Texas.
Perhaps because lawmakers realized that they should not use child health insurance as a negotiating tool , at least for a while, it also extends funding for the Child Health Insurance Program for another four years (i.e. CHIP will be funded for a decade after after Congress agreed to a six-year extension at the end of January ). Legislators will work out more precise details of spending (in other words, actually write the law) and will vote again at the end of March.
The deal does not address immigration, which angered some Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who made headlines on Wednesday speaking in the House Hall for more than eight hours about an immigration deferred action program for children arriving in the country and voted against the bill. Dems demanded legislation “to provide protection for the young illegal immigrants known as the Dreamers as part of any budgetary measure, but Republicans have refused,” Reuters reported . “Instead, they promised to hold a separate immigration debate in the Senate this month.”
Fiscal conservatives objected to spending levels. “With the adoption of this package of expenditures, I fear that the Republicans have lost their moral authority in order to steer our country away from possible national failure. I can’t support it with a clear conscience, ”said Texas spokesman Jeb Hensarling .
Fortunately, the deal retains special tax breaks for racehorse owners and motor sports facilities. Thus, while young immigrants may have to continue to worry about their future in the United States, all middle-class racehorse owners can rest in peace today.