The web site from The Hill states:
"The Senate passed a huge end-of-the-year $1.1 trillion omnibus spending measure Sunday afternoon by a vote of 57-35. ...The bill, which includes $447 billion in appropriations for a number of cabinet departments and $650 billion for Medicare and Medicaid, combines six of the 12 annual spending bills Congress had been unable to pass separately because of Republican concerns that the measure is over-inflated and exceeds the cost of inflation in its government budget increases."
In contrast the NY Times states:
"The Senate on Sunday sent President Obama a $446.8 billion measure funding much of the federal government, leaving Congress free to try to sort out a remaining tangle of year-end business....The vote for the huge spending bill, which actually totals more than $1 trillion when required spending for social programs is added in, left one spending bill remaining – a $600 billion Pentagon measure that Democrats hope to use to carry along some of the more contentious remaining items."
Now it it worth reading the two presentations. The Hill, not really a partisan site states the facts up front, $1.1 trillion. The Times hides the other $600 billion at the bottom of the article. Surprise? Not really.
The question is why $600 billion for Medicare. Remember that Medicare is really self funded, thus the reason for the appropriation is to allow Congress to again take from Medicare, this time $100 Billion more than it will spend! You cannot make this up! They are now not only taking what was paid into Medicare for Medicare but are placing Medicare in Debt! Neither news reports state that.
"The Senate passed a huge end-of-the-year $1.1 trillion omnibus spending measure Sunday afternoon by a vote of 57-35. ...The bill, which includes $447 billion in appropriations for a number of cabinet departments and $650 billion for Medicare and Medicaid, combines six of the 12 annual spending bills Congress had been unable to pass separately because of Republican concerns that the measure is over-inflated and exceeds the cost of inflation in its government budget increases."
In contrast the NY Times states:
"The Senate on Sunday sent President Obama a $446.8 billion measure funding much of the federal government, leaving Congress free to try to sort out a remaining tangle of year-end business....The vote for the huge spending bill, which actually totals more than $1 trillion when required spending for social programs is added in, left one spending bill remaining – a $600 billion Pentagon measure that Democrats hope to use to carry along some of the more contentious remaining items."
Now it it worth reading the two presentations. The Hill, not really a partisan site states the facts up front, $1.1 trillion. The Times hides the other $600 billion at the bottom of the article. Surprise? Not really.
The question is why $600 billion for Medicare. Remember that Medicare is really self funded, thus the reason for the appropriation is to allow Congress to again take from Medicare, this time $100 Billion more than it will spend! You cannot make this up! They are now not only taking what was paid into Medicare for Medicare but are placing Medicare in Debt! Neither news reports state that.
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