Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) has been less than pleased about the 2000-plus page Omnibus spending bill that he managed to get a hold of with so little time to read.
Over the course of his time in office, it’s clear that one of the Kentucky Senator’s pet peeves is being asked to vote on a bill that hardly has any time to be gone over and debated. It’s not how the legislature is supposed to be run, and Paul won’t balk at telling you that.
Despite the minuscule amount of time Paul has to read the ominous Omnibus bill, he’s steeled himself to go over it line by line and see what was in it. First, he had to print it, which took up more than just a few stacks of paper.
FYI- The 2200+ page, budget-busting Omnibus has been printing for two hours in my office and still isn’t done.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
When Paul finally had it in his hands, he decided to show the world what 2,200 plus pages of $1.3 trillion budget caps busting pages looks like.
Well here it is, all 2,232 budget-busting pages. The House already started votes on it. The Senate is expected to soon. No one has read it. Congress is broken… pic.twitter.com/izvJlUEgUM
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Since then, Paul has been telling the world various bits of what he found in it, since no one else seems willing to.
What he found hasn’t pleased him much.
1. On page 207. 2000+ pages to go! Reading about the ever wasteful $6 billion National Science Foundation.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
2. Remember the $350,000 NSF spent asking if japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine?
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
But it’s not all bad.
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."
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 240 good news for states rights:
no funds will be spent to prevent any state’s medical marijuana initiatives.
Thank you Congr. Rohrbacher
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
And of course, welcome to Porky’s.
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?
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
As you can see, Paul isn’t even remotely done yet with his read-through, and the way with which Congress is fully ready to burn through spending caps (again) has him a little more than irked.
According to Politico — who is apparently calling Paul the “king of Senate drama” for his efforts to carry out his duties — Paul might filibuster the bill, forcing his fellow Senators to stay in town instead of voting blindly for the bill and leaving through the weekend.
“The will-he-or-won’t-he cause a momentary shutdown is a familiar play from Paul. He loves using Senate rules to draw attention to his causes — even if it means agitating the people he goes to work with every day,” said Politico.
In this case, Paul’s cause is getting our country’s legislature to actually sit down and read these monstrosities that may shape the future of our nation, consider them, and possibly debate them before voting on them.
Ya know…doing the job they were elected to do.
As far as I can tell, Paul is one of the few senators in Washington right now earning his paycheck.
Update: Here’s a summary of what Paul has discovered so far.
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— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
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— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
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— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
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— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
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— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
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