House Republicans are on the cusp of passing legislation that would slash federal spending dramatically over the next six months, and they’ve larded it up with extraneous riders, which would undermine many of President Obama’s accomplishments.
That sounds terrible, but on the bright side it gave Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) a chance to unload on the GOP’s “orgy of self-congratulation.”
“Mr. Speaker, I guess I am the dissenter in this orgy of self-congratulation and I want to explain why,” Frank said in the wee hours of Friday morning.
Frank called it inappropriate to “debate the whole government and to debate fundamental policy issues under the guise of a budget, under the constraints of a budget debate, in not a whole week — two and a half days so far, maybe we’ll get a third day.”
Included among the items Republicans have attacked: Frank’s Wall Street reform law. In particular, they’ve curtailed funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which needs over $100 million to staff up in its early days.
Republicans introduced hundreds of amendments to the legislation, many of them of glancing relevance to the budget. In fact, they’re so overwhelmed with amendments that they’ve limited debate on all of them to streamline the process and pass the spending bill before the weekend. Frank mocked this, too.
“We are boasting about debating the whole government. Did my colleagues listen to the [unanimous consent]? You’ll get to debate whole aspects of the goverment tomorrow for 10 minutes. We are the model of democracy. The next thing you know they’ll be rioting in parts of the world so they can have 10 minutes … to debate fundamental issues,” he said. “This is a travesty.”
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