What he has discovered so far after reading 600 pages. He has signed off for the night. be.@RandPaul on omnibus bill: "This is why people are so upset with politics, because when the Republicans are out of power, when they're in the minority, they are the conservative party. But then when they get in the majority, there is no conservative party." #Tucker https://t.co/UbzbHjntK3
Senator Rand PaulVerified account @RandPaul 9h9 hours ago
Senator Rand PaulVerified account @RandPaul 9h9 hours ago
1. On page 207. 2000+ pages to
go! Reading about the ever wasteful $6 billion National Science Foundation.
2. Remember the $350,000 NSF
spent asking if japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine?
3. Reading this monstrous bill
full of grant programs begun decades ago reminds me of Reagan’s critique: the
nearest thing to immortality is a government program.
Page 226 of terrible, no good,
rotten deficit spending bill. I found a kernel of hope: “no funds in this act
will be used to support or justify torture."
Page 240 good news for states
rights: no funds will be spent to prevent any state’s medical marijuana
initiatives. Thank you Congr. Rohrbacher
Page 278. (1954 to go!) $961
million to destroy our chemical weapons. Who was it, exactly, who convinced our
government to pay billions to develop weapons we now find deplorable?
Page 281 of “crumni-bus”. CIA
retirement funding. Wouldn’t it be great to amend out the retirement benefits
of Trump hater John Brennan and Congressional dissembler James Clapper?
Here are a few more highlights:
o $1m for the Cultural Antiquities Task Force o $6.25m for the Ambassadors Fund
for Cultural Preservation o $20m for Countering Foreign State Propaganda o $12m
for Countering State Disinformation and Pressure
o $5m for Vietnam Education
Foundation Grants o $2.579m for Commission on Security and Co-operation in
Europe o $15m to USAID for promoting international higher education between
universities o $2.696bn for International Disaster Assistance
o $1.371bn for Contributions to
International Organizations o $51m to promote International Family Planning and
Reproductive Health o $7m promoting International Conservation o $10m for UN
Environmental Programs
o $1m for the World
Meteorological Organization o $218m for Promoting Democracy Development in
Europe (yep..the birthplace of democracy needs promoting) o $25m for
International Religious Freedom o $10m for disadvantaged Egyptian Students
o $12m for
Scholarships for Lebanon o $20m for Middle East Partnership Initiative
Scholarship Program o $12m in military funding for Vietnam o $3.5m in nutrition
assistance to Laos
o $15m in
Developmental assistance to China
o $10m for
Women LEOs in Afghanistan
1:47 PM - 22 Mar 2018
on page
355. NSA prohibited from targeting US persons with FISA 702 program. sounds
good —but — privacy advocates fear that NSA still does back-door targeting of
US persons. Courageous Senator Wyden has asked how many US persons caught up in
supposedly foreign data base.
But Brennan
and Clapper too busy spewing hatred of Trump to respond to legitimate requests.
Page 357.
Sec. 8116 no funds can be used in Iraq in contravention of the War Powers Act
sounds good but . . . haven’t we been back in Iraq at war against new foes
without any new congressional authorization?
Page 348 of
terrible, rotten, no-good budget busting bill, a nugget that I wish we obeyed
sec. 8103: none of the funds may be used in contravention of the War Powers Act
hmm . . .
that would mean we shouldn’t be spending $ in undeclared wars in Yemen, Libya,
Niger, Somalia, Afghanistan wonder why the party that talks about the rule of
law, doesn’t obey the rule of law?
Page 365: Overseas contingency operations. aka military slush fund
that circumvents budget caps. All told, we’ve spent over a trillion dollars in
this budget busting category.
eyes
getting tired but really someone should read this beast. Page 392 sec 9007: no
$ shall be spent “for the permanent stationing of US forces in Afghanistan” Wonder
what they meant by permanent? Some might argue that after 16 years we
approaching the definition of permanent.
Page 430 of
“crumni-bus:” Good news. The government is going to “earn” $350 million by
selling oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Bad news is the $ won’t go to
reduce the $21 trillion debt. The $ will be instead be spent elsewhere by the
Federal government.
Page 447: a
little over $30 billion for Dept of Energy Wonder if anyone would notice if we
had no Dept of Energy Put oversight of nuclear waste in DOD and let supply
& demand be our Energy policy
Page 485:
No $ used by the IRS to target citizens for exercising 1st amendment rights. Do
you think Lois Lerner knew about this part of the law before she targeted Tea
Party groups?
Ordered
some pizza to help me get through. Still going...
page 550: $9
billion for Govt Services Admin that oversees federal properties Fed government
spends $1.7 billion a year to maintain 770,000 empty buildings while continuing
to buy new properties.
General
Services Administration database of properties for sale is not available to public,
Congress or other federal agencies. Govt Acctbility Office says govt continues
to hold more property than it needs. No matter. . .this year the big spenders
still give GSA big $
Page 580:
Post Office gets $58 million but only if it promises not to close down small,
underutilized, money-losing post offices.
Page 587:
No $ for the President to request FBI background report on any individual. If
we had amendments, this would be a good place to add no $ for partisan hacks in
the Intel community to unmask any American without a judicial warrant.
Page 594
sec 626: No $ to require disclosure of content of an electronic communication.
Good amendment here. It would be to also protect forced disclosure of metadata,
ie phone #’s and identities of the phone callers.
I shared
600 pages tonight. I’m done tweeting them for the evening. If they insist on
voting, I will vote no because it spends to much and there’s just too little
time to read the bill and let everyone know what’s actually in it. Thanks for
sticking with me.
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