The Winners of the 2015-2016 Mental Health Award Goes To: The Envelope Please

Where Both Are Housed (or at least should be)

The Trophy for Max Disgrace and Dishonor 

(13% Job Approval Rating = 77% disapproval)

The $1.1 trillion budget bill signed into law by President Obama was the last thing Congress passed before adjourning for the year and heading home.

Lawmakers knew this was a must-pass bill to avoid a government shutdown, so they made sure to pack it full of goodies for their top donors. What’s been largely missed in the breadth of coverage about this bill is just how atrocious many of these last-minute provisions are, that were hidden in the bill’s enormous volume of text at late-night hours.

What follows is the worst from their goody list in the bill they often refer to as “the must-pass” bill. What a crying shame, too. This all-GOP run congress continues to blame and accuse Mr. Obama for “not doing his job or for everything wrong in the world” yet all the while the GOP (mostly GOP) ducks responsibility as they ram crap like this into a “must-pass” bill and then they head home to spread the good news to their (mostly) big donors. Payback is a truly a bitch, ain’t it (the kind they call good). 

They knew the president would sign the bill since many provisions in it is what DEMS and the country needs – just not the pork and other favors – but really important stuff, and not most of what is listed below. So, I wonder, why not call it the “blackmail” bill – that seems apropos. 

(Note: click on the link and read the fine print about each highlighted here):

1. Ban on domestic oil exports lifted: This move will benefit the big oil companies in a major way, rewarding them for their investment in lobbying and campaign contributions. In 2013 and 2014 alone, Big Oil spent over $326 million on buying politicians and Congressional votes.

2. Ban on studying gun violence maintained: While Republicans were successful in lifting the ban on domestic oil exports, Democrats failed to lift the ban on publicly-funded scientists studying the underlying origins of gun violence. So far in 2015, more than 457 people have died from 357 mass shootings. The total number of gun deaths this year is terrifying: 12,783 people have been killed by guns this year, and another 25,828 were injured, according to gun violence archive.org. Congress still won’t allow the CDC to study these incidents and learn about what leads to gun violence, extending the ban on public gun violence research earlier this year. The NRA has been a fierce opponent of gun violence research, saying that government scientists were using science to push for gun control. Their lobbying and campaign spending remains fierce: In the 2014, the NRA spent nearly $1 million on contributions, $6.77 million on lobbying, and a whopping $28.2 million in independent expenditures.

3. There’s enough corporate tax breaks to provide free college to everyone for 9 years:  One of the major provisions of the spending bill was the “Tax Extenders” package, which makes a vast number of tax breaks permanent. While some of the tax breaks will help working families, like the extension of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, 60 percent, or roughly $350 billion of the tax breaks are for corporations. This includes a tax break called “active financing” which helps corporations keep money made in the US stashed in overseas tax havens. The $622 billion in tax breaks is enough to fund tuition-free public college for 9 years.

4.  Ban on IRS action against organizations abusing their tax exempt status: This will likely pave the way for politically-active C4 organizations, like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, to take in even more money from undisclosed donors. Theoretically, this could mean that foreign governments could spend money influencing American elections. 

5.  Corporations don’t have to disclose political activity to shareholders:  On page 1,982 of the budget bill, Republicans concealed language that prevents the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring corporations disclose their political activity to shareholders. This is likely a response to grassroots mobilization among shareholders demanding the companies they invest in disclose how they spent their vast reserves to influence elections. With the passage of this bill, there’s no way the federal government can require disclosure.

6. CISA surveillance bill added: In the wake of the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, Congress renewed its push for the Cyber Internet Security Act (CISA) a controversial internet surveillance bill that would give private companies legal immunity from sharing users’ most intimate data with the federal government. 

Speaker Paul Ryan snuck CISA into the must-pass budget bill to bypass procedural holdups. It would also make it even easier for the government to spy on citizens’ Internet activity, streamlining the process between the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, and federal courts.

7.  Country of origin labels (COOL) on meat repealed: While the food industry didn’t get the GMO labeling ban it lobbied for, it did get a major win in the budget bill as Republicans repealed Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for beef, poultry, and pork. COOL is a common-sense measure that helps grocery shoppers make informed decisions by letting them know where their food comes from. As a result of COOL repeal, American livestock farmers will lose business when competing with factory farming operations overseas.

8. Wall Street deregulation: The deregulation bill reverses portions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act of 2010, and allows big banks to get away with the same high-risk gambling on complex financial instruments that caused the 2008 financial crisis. Wall Street lobbyists actually wrote most of the language in the bill that was snuck into last year’s budget bill.

And finally on top of all that, this GOP-run Congress once again puts pressure on the healthcare bill (ACA) and Planned Parenthood with this headlines: 

GOP promises House vote to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood

A few details surround this their latest tactic (which is not new at all): 

1. Another year, another effort to repeal Obamacare.
2. House Republicans are starting off 2016 with a renewed legislative push to roll back the president's landmark health care legislation, with proposals to defund Planned Parenthood tacked onto the bill.

More from CBS News here. All in all, it's kind of disgusting again isn’t it?

So, how about two of these this time; seems to fit nicely:

 

Thanks for stopping and be sure to vote and return them all to office next year (said with a cynical smirk).