Omnibus Appropriations

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday Democratic leaders unveiled an omnibus spending bill that some have described as one last spending binge for a Congress that will long be remembered for doing just that. The Senate should reject it.

It appeared to some of us we were making good progress on the economy when lawmakers in both parties agreed Monday to let taxpayers keep more of their own money. But yesterday Democrats unveiled a 2,000-page spending bill that repeats all of the mistakes voters demanded that we put an end to on election day.

Americans told Democrats last month to stop what they have been doing: bigger government, 2,000-page bills jammed through on Christmas Eve, wasteful spending. This bill is a monument to all three. It includes more than $1 billion to fund the Democratic health care bill. For those of us who have vowed to repeal it, this alone is reason to oppose the omnibus. It is being dropped on us with just a few days to go before the Christmas break, ensuring that no one in Congress has a chance to examine it thoroughly before the vote, and ensuring Americans don't have a chance to see what is in it either. This, too, is reason enough to oppose it.

For 2 years Republicans have railed against the Democrats for rushing legislation through Congress, but this is, without a doubt, one of the worst abuses of the process yet.

The voters made an unambiguous statement last month. They don't like the wasteful spending, they don't want the Democratic health care bill, and they don't want lawmakers rushing staggeringly complex, staggeringly expensive bills through Congress without any time for people to study what is buried in the details.

This bill is a legislative slap in the face to all the voters who rejected these things.

For the first time in the modern era--for the first time in the modern era--Congress hasn't passed a single appropriations bill--not one, not one single appropriations bill. Democrats have been too focused on their own leftwing wish list to take care of the very basic work of government.

Now, at the end of the session, they want to roll all of these bills together, along with anything else they haven't gotten over the past 2 years, and rush it past the American people just the way they jammed the health care bill through Congress last Christmas. We all remember being here every single day throughout the month of December last year for a 2,700-page health care bill passed on Christmas Eve. This is eerily reminiscent of the experience last December, and I predict the American people have the same reaction to this bill as they did to the health care bill a year ago.

A more appropriate approach is available to us. We could pass a sensible, short-term continuing resolution that gets us into next year when the new Congress will have the opportunity to make a determination on how best to spend the taxpayers' money. The government runs out of money, by the way, this Saturday. Congress should pass a short-term CR immediately. We need to pass this tax legislation we voted on earlier this week. And we should accomplish the most basic function of government. We can at least vote to keep the lights on around here. I mean, the deadline for funding the basics of government was last October, and here we are on December 15 proposing treaties--treaties. We ought to pass the tax legislation and keep the lights on. Everything else can wait.

I yield the floor.

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