Friday, October 2, 2009

Stopgap spending bills

"The House passed legislation on Friday to head off a government shutdown next week by temporarily extending spending on most federal programs at current levels. The bill also increases the budgets for lawmakers’ offices by more than 8 percent. The one-month stopgap measure, approved on a 217-to-190 vote, is needed because Congress failed to complete work on any of the 12 annual spending bills required to keep the government running."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/us/politics/26cong.html?_r=1

When Republicans were in control, this type of "continuing resolution" was front page news, and cited as proof that the Republican Congress couldn't do the job. Remember?

Bigger news in the old days? Congress "extends spending" "at current levels" but "increases the budgets for lawmakers’ offices by more than 8 percent". That would have required condemnation on the editorial page of every newspaper.

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