Government funding bill approved
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – President Obama admitted on Friday that there are provisions in the massive $1.1 trillion spending bill the House passed he does not like, but it is a compromise.
President Obama expects it will pass the Senate either Friday or Monday.
The compromise raised some eyebrows about the internal war that is going on within the Democratic party.
Thursday was a day of high drama as members of the house in both parties scrambled for the votes which the Republicans eventually won.
The liberals were outraged saying the spending bill would undermine the party down the road, and weaken its position with the people.
President Obama and his Cabinet, lit-up the phones urging Democrats to avert a government shutdown.
The drama was capped by Nancy Pelosi breaking with President Obama and challenging him to be firm, and not settle for small victories.
“We are in the House being blackmailed! Being blackmailed! To vote for an appropriations bill,” said Pelosi.
And the Democrats new star, Senator Elizabeth Warren urged Democrats to stand up and fight, and Republicans to adhere to their own principles.
“I’m here today to ask my Republican colleagues – who don’t want to see another Wall Street bailout – to join our efforts to strip this Wall Street giveaway from the bill. This is not about partisanship. This is about fairness,” said Warren.
300 former Obama campaign staffers and organizers have singed a letter urging Warren to run in 2016.
House Speaker John Boehner also had trouble with conservatives in his party who are angered because the bill did not stop the President’s action on immigration.
Boehner reacted to selling out to Wall Street by weakening financial reforms.
“Democrats have supported this provision in the past, It was agreed to, in this bill, on the bipartisan, bicameral agreement,” said Boehner.
“We debated, We fought. You know, sometimes you give a little, you take a little,” said Mikulksi.
This would be the first on-time budget of the Obama years, and that is important to the military, and San Diego’s defense industry.
“The military can’t do any planning, we really need a budget that’s the bottom line,” said Blumberg.
Larry Blumberg heads the San Diego Military Advisory Council. He says contracts cannot be awarded under short term continuing resolutions, and that shuts down the ship repair industry.
“If we don’t get a budget we can’t make the award, you can’t make an award under the continuing resolution,” he said.
Late on Friday Congress gave the President the $585 billion Defense Policy Bill to pay for Pentagon activities in 2015, including authority to expand the campaign against ISIS.
