What should approving the second coming of the Patriot Act — known to others as the data privacy-shredding Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) — have to do with bipartisan passage of the 1.1 trillion-dollar omnibus federal spending bill?
Did you know that oil tankers are parked at sea while brokers search for buyers in an excessively saturated market?
With a global glut in oil inventory and the lowest prices we’ve seen in the market in years, why did Congress make provisions in this spending bill to lift US oil export restrictions?
Since lifting export restrictions will encourage domestic production, wouldn’t the latter present a conflict to the Paris climate change agreement the US just signed to limit fossil fuel emissions?
And what do export regulations have to do with a federal spending bill?
Since we now know that tax cuts for the rich and corporations don’t translate into trickle-down wealth for the poor and middle class — hell, the architect of Reaganomics admitted as much — why did Congress, with the support of both political parties, pass a spending bill laden with tax cuts for corporations while adding more than half a trillion dollars to the federal deficit?
And was Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seriously considering a federal government shutdown if he didn’t get these corporate tax cuts?
About the chart above — the sinking blue line represents employee compensation as a percentage of GDP, while the rising red line summarizes corporate profits during the same period.
Why was Congress given a 2,009-page version of the bill, and less than 48 hours to review it prior to the vote?
With so many pages to this bill, I’m bound to have more questions as I continue to comb through it …
McConnell remarked that the finished bill represents an achievement for how an otherwise non-productive Congress is working for the American people.
I heard on the radio that President Obama, who signed the bill, said “The system works.”
Do you get the sense that that Washington’s idea of work differs from yours?
I embedded the bill below. Read a few pages and form your own opinion …
song currently stuck in my head: “remember the rain” – kadhja bonet
mentalunrest.com 