Congress OKs year-end budget deal, sends to Obama

The Senate passed voted 65-33 in favor of the package, which also included a bill to extend expired tax breaks that the House passed on Thursday. Wolf, the Republican-controlled Senate and House Democrats are backing a $30.8 billion spending plan – a 6 percent spending increase – and an accompanying $1 billion-plus tax plan.

He went on to say how the spending bill has “some big wins” for the country, including, as previously mentioned, the lift on the oil export ban, more military spending, a tax bill, and better health care for 9/11 first responders. The White House indicated President Barack Obama will sign both measures, according to the report.

“Congress can now move into 2016 with a fresh start”, said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., whose leadership as the new speaker was tested with the compromise. It does include language lifting a decades-old ban on crude oil exports.

“Typically in the Senate you have two votes – you can vote either “yes” or ‘no.’ On this particular matter, my vote I intend to be ‘hell no, ‘ ” Cruz told The John Fredericks Show.

It extends or makes permanent dozens of credits and deductions for businesses and households, none of them paid for with cuts elsewhere in the budget.

“Residents from over 40 states get to deduct their state income tax from their federal taxes, and now, through the permanent extension of the state and local sales tax deduction, Washington state families can know that they will get to keep more of their money too”, said Jaime.

“They wanted big oil so bad that they gave away the store”, said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat.

The Republicans won the Congress – House and Senate – in the 2014 elections but that did not stop the Democrats from blocking voting on much of the country’s business.

Yet few conservatives were complaining about Ryan himself, and many lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, proudly touted the accomplishments achieved since the new speaker was sworn in, including bipartisan bills on highways and education and a two-year budget and debt deal that paved the way for Friday’s spending and tax legislation.

Republican Congressman Robert Pittenger, who voted for the spending bill, said the provision ending the ban on oil exports will echo around the world.

“On the very last day before lawmakers in both chambers scatter for the holidays, Congress cleared these must-pass bills”.

In a surprise outcome, the House overwhelmingly approved a year-end $1.1 trillion spending package that avoids a government shutdown and funds federal agencies through next fall.

The budget bill gives Obama numerous spending increases he’s demanded all year. Mr. Ryan said on Wednesday that House committees would work with the Puerto Rican government “to come up with a responsible solution” by the end of March.

“This bill is even referred to as a Christmas tree bill because special interests get special presents, all in ornaments on this tree”, Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas, said in a speech on the House floor yesterday. “It is long past time to bring the tax code into the 21st century, and I remain committed to working with my colleagues on a fiscally responsible, comprehensive plan that supports the middle class and economic growth while reducing the deficit in a balanced way”.

Also crammed into the two bills are provisions trimming some of the levies that help finance Obama’s prized 2010 health care overhaul, including two-year suspension of a tax on medical devices and, in a victory for unions, a two-year postponement of a “Cadillac tax” on higher-cost insurance policies.