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Phydeaux -> RE: Almost 600billion for defense, And no to stopping the NSAs collections (7/25/2013 1:20:11 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
quote:
ORIGINAL: Lucylastic
The House of Representatives passed a $598.3 billion defense spending bill Wednesday, while rejecting an amendment to the bill that would have challenged the National Security Agency’s collection of millions of Americans’ phone records, in a debate that clashed privacy rights against the fight to thwart terror.
The defense spending bill passed 315 to 109. The amendment was voted down 217-205 on an issue that created unusual political coalitions in Washington, with libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats pressing for the change against the Obama administration, the Republican establishment and Congress' national security experts.
94 Republicans and 111 Democrats voted for the amendment, while 134 Republicans and 83 Democrats voted no.
The showdown vote marked the first chance for lawmakers to take a stand on the secret surveillance program since former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked classified documents last month that spelled out the monumental scope of the government's activities.
Over the next couple years, there will be 217 races filled with attack ads stating "Representative Such'n'Such doesn't believe you have a right to any privacy" and 205 races filled with attack ads stating "Representative So'n'So is weak on National Security and Terrorism."
On the plus side, it is $5B less than current spending...
Agree on the plus side about this being 5 bill less. Unfortunately OBummer wants to veto it as spending isn't cut $38 bil.
Interestng politics on this one - the repubs were smart to actually pass this out of the house prior to most of the other bills. Overlooked small advantage that approrpiations must originate in the house. And since the dems don't get paid if they don't pass a budget - they actually have an incentive to pass something.
The dems want to defend a bunch of states where defense is an issue that plays well. So places like Baucus's district will be urging small cuts to defense but certainly nowhere on the scale that Obummer wants.
Since the repubs passed a bill with 5 bil in cuts, the dems have politial cover for around that much in cuts, plus a little more. 10 bil will fly, 20 billion won't. So I'm guessing that if it gets to conference it will come out with 13 bil or so in cuts. Which means that the dems will probably request 20 bill, and negotiate up.
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