Some Republicans were anxious that the spending bill adds to the federal budget deficit and erodes the fiscal discipline that Republicans in the House of Representatives have become known for in recent years. Republicans won a spending increase for the military and an end to a ban on exporting US oil, as well as permanent tax cuts for business investment.
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The White House and Congressional Democrats said they had thwarted the Republicans’ main policy goals, including efforts to cut off government financing for Planned Parenthood and put restrictions on Syrian and Iraqi refugees, while securing a number of their own priorities, including tax benefits for working Americans and to promote renewable energy.
The lopsided House vote was a major victory for new Speaker Paul Ryan. At the same time, the lifting of the oil ban brought Republicans on board.
In keeping with a bipartisan compromise, hashed out in an era of divided government and deep-rooted philosophical differences, all sides claimed victory. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., scheduled the votes for Friday anyway.
But tea party lawmakers were dismayed by the burst of spending and a lack of wins for conservatives.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., missed the vote.
“Absent big oil we could not have had many of these other successes”, Pelosi told reporters before the vote.
“This bill is even referred to as a Christmas tree bill because special interests get special presents, all in ornaments on this tree”, Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas, said in a speech on the House floor yesterday.
The legislation to fund government operations through the remainder of fiscal 2016 passed the House, 316-113, with 166 Democrats shoring up the majority of support.
“Typically in the Senate you have two votes – you can vote either “yes” or ‘no.’ On this particular matter, my vote I intend to be ‘hell no, ‘ ” Cruz told The John Fredericks Show.
“This is what a broken Washington looks like under President Obama and what Congress reverts to without conservative presidential leadership”, he said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who’s running for the Democratic presidential nomination, voted no, lamenting that the package “gives more tax breaks to billionaires, encourages large corporations to ship jobs overseas and makes worse an already corrupt campaign finance system”.
Ryan (R-Wis.) says he wants to move spending bills individually next year to avoid having to once again consider an omnibus package at the end of the year.
The two pieces of legislation would suspend three taxes meant to fund the Affordable Care Act – a so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost health insurance plans would be delayed from 2018 to 2020; a 2.3 per cent tax on medical devices would be paused in 2016 and 2017; and a fee on health insurers would be paused for 2016. The spending bill not only prevents a government shutdown until next fall, but it also contains a few policy provisions.
On Tuesday, while the Republican presidential candidates were taking shots at each other in Las Vegas in the latest debates, Paul Ryan and other bipartisan lawmakers on Capitol Hill were putting forward the omnibus bill, a tax and funding bill.
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Republicans argued that the tax breaks will pave the way for a more comprehensive tax overhaul in the future and more than pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth.
