For one example of the cost, NYT describes how, with the support of Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada, "lobbyists swooped in to add 54 words that temporarily preserved a loophole sought by the hotel, restaurant and gambling industries" for a tax-avoidance scheme worth over a billion dollars. The share of the house rake for Harry on these winnings by his home-state industry could fund a comfortable retirement, if he hasn't already socked away enough plutocratic gratitude for that purpose by now. Containing roughly 8800 such 54-word chunks, the bill contained wide vistas for implanting concisely-crafted billion dollar gifts here and there.
"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."
Made simple, what Obama failed to mention to the press is that plutocrats took more than half the amount of the whole federal budget, more than the total discretionary civilian budget, as their price, payable in future tax expenditures, for allowing the government that they own to stay open another year, other than for military purposes. In effect, what Bernie Sanders calls the "billionaire class" has taken over a formerly public bridge by force of bribery and is now charging tolls worth more than that portion of the bridge's value that is attributable to keeping the non-military (45%) lanes functioning for civilians another year.
An open question is whether the federal government is worth the price of paying plutocrats for the privilege of keeping it open. Does it even function for the public as usefully as does, say, the metaphorical privatized bridge? It is now used mainly to facilitate annual "CRomnibus" plundering expeditions against its citizenry by its corrupt new owners, all facilitated by a U.S. Supreme Court that has deliberately undermined its governing Constitution, and with the implicit threat of using the military lanes of that bridge in case of any resistance to the perpetual plunder.
Unlike last year, not just the company-town Washington Post rushed out reportage on these last-minute shenanigans. Others have covered this "orgy of predatory, omnivorous bipartisanship" in some detail. One piece exposed "the truth of inadequate government spending and conservative sabotage" reflected in the levels of appropriations so diminished as to turn civilian government missions into zombie operations. The disfavored government functions that get in the way of plutocratic rule still exist in name, but have insufficient funds to perform their purpose effectively.
The general flavor of CRomnibus II priorities was reflected in the proud report of a Republican supporter who praised the law because it: 1) "Cuts EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] funding by $452 million below the President's budget request, holding the agency's budget at 21% below FY10 levels," (which were overall 1.7 percent lower than Bush's FY 2009 budget); 2) contains "funding for the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy at $986 million, an increase of $73 million above fiscal year 2015 and $79 million above the President's request" to subsidize this inefficient and dangerous technology; and 3) "Denies the administration's request to retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II" requested by the Air Force on cost grounds, but which now can be built in this politician's state whether needed or not. Similar unwanted military boondoggles were provided for Maine ($1 billion) and Mississippi ($640 million) and other beneficiaries.
With such donor-led spending priorities -- parsimonious with the public's interest and profligate in the MIC's and other plutocratic interests -- guiding environmental, energy and defense strategy, the nation must be safely in good hands.
Steve Horn wrote an excellent piece on a major CRomnibus II global-warming provision "to end the 40-year export ban" on US petroleum. This provision, coming only days after Obama's COP21 "commitments," serves the twin public-policy goals of increasing the price at the pump for future American consumers with the added bonus of increasing the global temperature too. Score two for greedy plutocrats on that one.
And then, barely worth remarking in the Bush/Obama permanent state of discretionary imperial war, there is a constitutionally required declaration of war hidden in there somewhere, according to Harvard's expert on such things, Jack Goldsmith." Congress is not calling its funding an authorization for the use of force against ISIL, much less debating the authorization. But make no mistake: The funding to continue the war against ISIL is an authorization of force against ISIL, albeit a quiet one, designed not to attract attention." "Authorization of force" is bureaucratic euphemism for "declaration of war."
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