The U.S. House passed a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill on Friday morning with a 316-113 bipartisan vote. there were members who thought the legislation didn’t do enough for their side.
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The House earlier passed the two pieces separately by solid majorities – the tax package Thursday and the spending bill Friday morning.
A coalition of more centrist Democrats and Republicans passed the spending bill that would avoid a shutdown when the government’s current funding expires at 12:01 a.m. ET on December 23.
Yet few conservatives were complaining about Ryan himself, and many lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, proudly touted the accomplishments achieved since the new speaker was sworn in, including bipartisan bills on highways and education and a two-year budget and debt deal that paved the way for Friday’s spending and tax legislation.
The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the tax provisions in the combined tax-and-spending deal would increase USA budget deficits by around $680 billion over 10 years compared to allowing the tax breaks to expire.
Republicans won increases for the military and an end to a ban on exporting US oil.
But middle-class Americans also benefit under the tax measure.
Republicans may have gotten the majority of their majority to vote for the bill, but Democrats provided the majority of votes – 166 – to send the legislation to the Senate.
It had earlier swept through the House on a pair of decisive votes on Thursday and Friday, marking a peaceful end to a yearlong struggle over the budget, taxes, and Republican efforts to derail his regulatory agenda.
“Sessions is talking about and maybe some others, that process of slowing it down allows more Americans to wake up to the reality of what’s in the bill, and perhaps as a result demand that their elected representatives do something to make those changes on things like the Syrian refugees”, Rubio said.
“They wanted big oil so much that they gave away the store”, Pelosi gloated.
Democratic leaders did not formally whip in favor of the legislation, arguing it was Republicans’ bill and thus the GOP’s responsibility to get it over the finish line. More than 50 expiring tax cuts will be extended, with more than 20 becoming permanent, including credits for companies’ expenditures for research and equipment purchases and reductions for lower-earning families and households with children and college students.
“Democrats were able to cite the absence of more than 150 proposed policy riders they opposed, including provisions to restrict the Syrian refugee program, cut funding for President Barack Obama’s executive immigration action, and defund Planned Parenthood”, as their wins coming out of the negotiations, according to the Daily Signal. The White House opposed the rollbacks, but Republicans and many Democrats savored them.
Also crammed into the two bills are provisions trimming some of the levies that help finance Obama’s prized 2010 health care overhaul. These taxes include the health insurance tax, the medical device tax and the “Cadillac tax”.
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In return, Democrats gained five-year extensions of wind and solar tax breaks.
