About that $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill Congress has passed…just how do the worthies plan to spread that cash (much of it borrowed, but that's our grandchildrens' problem)?
In all the ways one would expect from a gaggle of spend-happy pols in the waning days of the year. The headline numbers from the Senate Appropriations Committee:
The omnibus includes $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs, including $118.7 billion – a 22 percent increase – for VA medical care, and $858 billion in defense funding.
What are some of the specifics of these eye-watering numbers? Reason pulled out some of the more…interesting…line items from the 4,000-page bill:
This includes a $44.9 billion assistance package for Ukraine and NATO allies—slightly more than the amount allotted ($40.6 billion) to help U.S. communities recovering from natural disasters.
The omnibus spending bill also contains $1.8 billion for the CHIPS Act of 2022, which Reason contributor and Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy calls “corporate welfare disguised as industrial policy.”
Law enforcement agencies across the country are set to receive proverbial boatloads of cash, courtesy, of course, of John Q. Public. The federal government is set to fund state and local agencies to the tune of $770.8 million via Justice Assistance Grants (JAG). The amount is an eight-fold increase from last year's JAG programs. Other recruiting, hiring and retention law enforcement programs are receiving generous increases.
The FBI is also getting a raise. The 2023 spending bill gives the agency $11.33 billion, which is $569.6 million more than in 2022 and $524 million more than Biden requested. A summary from the House Appropriations Committee says this will help expand efforts to “investigate extremist violence and domestic terrorism.” Meanwhile, U.S. attorneys are getting $2.63 billion, “an increase of $212.1 million above fiscal year 2022, including to further support prosecutions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and domestic terrorism cases.”
And don't think immigration cops or cyber cops have been left out. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will get $8.42 billion in 2023—$161.1 million more than in fiscal year 2022 and $319.4 million more than Biden requested. And the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is getting $2.9 billion, up $313.5 million from 2022 levels and $396.4 million more than Biden requested.
And so on. Politicians love playing Santa Claus, especially with other people's money. And this spending bill shows that love is alive and thriving.
Never mind the red ink, the IOUs and the future debt service payments that will eat future budgets alive.
In the meantime…pass the egg nog. And an aspirin.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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