Title: Paul slams spending bill (STATUS QUO = FAILURE) Source:
The Hill URL Source:http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-acti ... 55268-paul-slams-spending-bill Published:Sep 29, 2015 Author:Jordain Carney Post Date:2015-09-29 19:27:52 by Hondo68 Keywords:Take a Stand, Waste Report, cocaine quail sex Views:979 Comments:8
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) slammed his Republican colleagues over backing a short-term spending bill, calling Congress a "withering shadow" of what it once was.
"Congress is a withering shadow," the Kentucky Republican said. "It's a shadow of what it once was. Congress has no power, exerts no power, and we walk and we live in the shadow of a presidency that is growing larger and larger and larger."
Paul's remarks come as the Senate is expected to pass a short-term spending bill that includes money for Planned Parenthood ahead of an end-of-the-month deadline to fund the government and avoid a shutdown.
The Kentucky Republican, who is running for president, was one of 19 Republicans who voted against moving forward with the short-term continuing resolution (CR) during a procedural vote on Monday.
He added on Tuesday that the legislation is a "steaming pile of the same old same old. ... A warmed over version of yesterday's failures."
Paul isn't the only 2016 competitor unhappy with the Senate for taking up the short-term bill. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) railed against the spending bill on Monday evening, suggesting that if outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had allowed it to move forward, he would have lost his job.
Boehner announced on Friday that he would step down at the end of October.
Paul added on Tuesday that the CR is an example of Congress's "failure to use our leverage, a failure to use the power of the purse. Conservatives across America are unhappy and rightly so."
Paul is a frequent critic of government spending, including releasing a "Waste Report" to highlight programs that he believes are a misuse of federal funds.
He suggested on Tuesday that instead of requiring 60 votes to "defund anything," lawmakers should instead set up a system where all spending automatically expires.
"This is the perfect time to turn the table," he said. "Now some will report on this speech and say, oh, he wants to shut down the government. No I don't. I just want to exert the power of the purse, and that means spending must expire. But I'm all for renewing the spending."
Cruz and Rubio were for increased spending and bigger government, before they were against it. After Rand Paul held their feet to the fire, Rafael Cruz changed his tune.
Cruz and Rubio were for increased spending and bigger government, before they were against it. After Rand Paul held their feet to the fire, Rafael Cruz changed his tune.
Rand made a few sharp remarks about Cruz's bull-in-a-china-shop act.
He also outlined his own preference for the Senate GOP forcing votes on every program individually, with each one requiring a closure vote. I dunno if it would work but it's better than McConnell's process.
RollCall:
Rand Paul: Ted Cruz ‘Pretty Much Done For’ in Senate
By Niels Lesniewski, Sept. 29, 2015
Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday said fellow Republican presidential candidate Ted. Cruz is “done for” in the Senate.
“Ted has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names, which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the Senate, and as a consequence, he can’t get anything done legislatively,” Paul told Fox News Radio. “He is pretty much done for and stifled and it’s really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem.”
Paul, a Kentucky Republican who has had the backing of his home-state senior senator, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, despite some tough policy differences, had been asked about Cruz’s inability to even muster the support of 11 senators to secure a roll call vote on a procedural motion designed to amend the continuing resolution to keep the government running.
The Senate’s set to vote on passage of that measure at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the last day of the federal government’s 2015 fiscal year.
“I approach things a little different, I am still just as hardcore in saying what we are doing, I just chose not to call people liars on the Senate floor and it’s just a matter of different perspectives on how best to get to the end result,” Paul said in the interview.
Like Cruz, Paul opposes the CR advanced by McConnell to avoid a shutdown later in the week. But Paul has focused his criticism on the use of the stopgap spending vehicles. Paul would have rather seen more pressure put on Democrats to advance the dozen individual appropriation bills.
“I would defund not only Planned Parenthood but hundreds and hundreds of regulations, hundreds and hundreds of wasteful programs. I would take them all out, put them on the table and say ‘You know what Democrats, it doesn’t take 60 votes to defund something, it’s actually going to take 60 votes to fund any of these programs,’ vote on them one at a time and we will see how many of these crazy programs get 60 votes. My guess would be very few, but that would take the courage to let the spending expire and start anew and let new programs all require 60 votes to pass,” Paul said.
McConnell signaled Tuesday he intends to call additional votes on the regular fiscal 2016 spending bills, though there was no evidence Democrats accede to that proposal without a big budget agreement between the two parties.
