Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

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A Trillion Dollar Bill

Friday July 27, 2007

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Check out the new Mullings Blog.

You really should take a look.
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The Democrat-led Congress is sitting at approval ratings (about 26%) which are below the approval ratings for President Bush (about 33%).

There is a reason for this. The House - led by Nancy Pelosi - and the Senate - led by Harry Reid - are accomplishing nothing. Nada. Nil. Zilch. Zero. Bupkis.

The fiscal year for the United States ends on September (thirty days hath �) 30th. October 1 is supposed to start with all of the Federal Departments, Agencies, Bureaus and Offices fully funded with someone giving us a total which ends in "llion" and, in these days, begins with "tri."

Guess how many of the 12 major spending bills for Fiscal Year 2008 have been completed?

Zero. Nada. Nil. Zilch. Bupkis.

SIDEBAR

Bupkis is a Yiddish word meaning, nada, nil, zilch and zero. It actually translates to "beans" as in "That Galen. He doesn't know beans [bupkis] about politics."
Bupkis, like many other Yiddish words, is fun to say. Try it. See?
Now, for extra credit, try schlemiel. Also fun, no?

END SIDEBAR

To be fair, when the GOP controlled Congress they weren't much better at getting appropriations bills to the White House.

If a Department, Agency, Bureau or Office is not funded after midnight September 30, it has to shut down. To avoid this horror, the Congress generally passes (and the President signs) what is known as a "Continuing Resolution." You will read this in your local paper as a "CR."

A CR generally continues funding the affected Department, Agency, Bureau or Office at current levels or current levels plus five percent (or some such) and has an end date by which, the theory goes, the Member of the House and Senate will have actually done what we pay them to do and pass these spending bills.

If a CR contains nothing but the funding levels it is called a "Clean CR."

CRs, though, are so important and the pressure on the President to some them is so great, that the Members of the House and Senate who couldn't do their job in the first place, often cannot resist the impulse to add a little something to the bill.

A little something like � setting a date certain for the US to pull its troops out of Iraq.

Ohhhh. I see how this is going to work. The Democrats in the House and Senate are going to hold outfits like the Department of Commerce (which precious few Democrats call home) as well as the Department of Labor (which is lousy with Liberals) hostage to their need to satisfy MoveOn.org and the rest of the political Left.

Congress, exhausted from issuing subpoenas to everyone who ever walked down Pennsylvania Avenue on their way to lunch, is going on its annual month-long vacation beginning about August 4 and will not return until after Labor Day.

Labor Day in 2007 is Monday September 3. The Congress (assuming it doesn't over do by working on weekends, will have from Tuesday, September 4 to Friday, September 29 to debate, write, pass, conference, enroll, and send to the President all these bills.

Ain't happenin' (not, by the way, Yiddish).

It is very likely that the joint geniuses, Pelosi and Reid, will propose an alternative to the 12 appropriations bills and a CR: An OMNIBUS spending bill.

This may well be a trillion dollars. For those who don't know what a trillion dollars looks like, it looks like a thousand billion; which, in turn, is a thousand million.

There are 31,536,000 seconds in a year. Thirty one million.

A billion seconds is about 32 years.

A trillion seconds is about 32 THOUSAND years.

Duke Cunningham, on his best day, wouldn't have been able to figure out how to spend a trillion dollars efficiently.

The Democrats are going to send a Trillion Dollar Bill to the White House and dare the President to veto it.

I hope the President takes the dare.

On a the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to a US House site which explains the whole Appropriations Process and a companion explanation from the Library of Congress. Also a Mullfoto you'll think I made up and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

Also, if you haven't yet, you should check out the Mullblog!. There is interesting stuff there and, you can respond for the whole world to see.

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