Congress is back with a spending package to fund the rest of the federal government. This one is 1,012 pages long, plus another 932 pages of "explanatory statements" that contain a lot of the gory details.

MEGATHREAD with gimmicks, earmarks, and a few wins. (1) A way for Congress to get around spending caps is "rescissions," or cuts to previously enacted spending. Every dollar "cut" makes room for more spending.

For instance, this "rescission" is an annual fake cut; the money wouldn't have been spent.(2)

The House and Senate have released a 1,050 page spending package. Yet because there are long lists of pork projects and niche special interest carve-outs, there's another 1,281 pages of "explanatory statements".

Ongoing MEGATHREAD of highlights and lowlights (1): The name of the game for congressional spenders is "what can we get away with" rather than "how can we use the public's money most responsibly." For example: they use "emergency" designations as a budget gimmick to cram more $$$ inside spending caps. (2)

The amount of confusion about what the debt limit deal means for debt and spending, even though we've had the text for almost 2 days, says a lot about how it's drafted. There's gamesmanship to try and provide plausible deniability to both D and R leadership. Examples:
(1/7) The PACT Act, dealing with toxic exposure coverage for veterans, passed last year. The last omnibus included $5 billion for a related fund. Debt limit deal increases the fund dramatically. How is this counted?
(2/7)

Last year's obscenely bloated omnibus spending bill is a big source of discontent among House conservatives. Since the spending debate is only just beginning, I'm going to highlight 23 of the worst FY 2023 earmarks over the next several weeks. MEGATHREAD: (1/x)

https://twitter.com/DavidADitch/status/1605102741617086464

Today's earmark is $500,000 for upgrading a skate park in Burrillville, Rhode Island, which was requested by Rep Langevin with support from Sen Whitehouse.

Burrillville, population 16k, is located about 20 miles northwest of Providence and seems like a perfectly nice town. (2/x)

In the wee hours of the morning, Senate leadership delivered 4155 pages of unfiltered swamp called an Omnibus, concluding with authorization of a Continuous Plankton Recorder.
appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

Ongoing omnibus thread on the 2023 Omnibus:
(1/x) Opposition to this sort of backroom, no-ability-to-read-or-amend, debt-hiking governance will be portrayed as radical. That is exactly backwards. The American people’s representatives deserve an opportunity to properly consider important legislation. (2/x)

A year ago, Sen. Manchin started pushing back against the left's attempt to railroad through a huge tax-and-spend bill. His reasoning, focused on inflation and the national debt, was sound. And he has completely abandoned it over the last two weeks.🧵 (1/6) INFLATION 1: Manchin correctly cited deficit spending as inflationary. Yet he has just voted for two bills with heavy deficit spending (CHIPS and PACT), and the new package's claimed deficit reduction mostly happens years from now. Net result makes things worse. (2/6)