Senate Voted On 154-Page ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Bill 3

Senate Voted On 154-Page ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Bill 3 Minutes After They Got It

Continuing to  pass legislation without knowing what is in it , reports are coming out that the Senate received the 154-page  fiscal cliff bill and  budget score just 3 minutes before they voted on it.

CNS News reports,

Multiple Senate sources have confirmed to CNSNews.com that senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013 – a mere three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM.

The bill is 154-pages and includes several provisions that are unrelated to the fiscal cliff, including repealing a section of ObamaCare, extending the wind-energy tax credit, and a rum tax subsidy deal for Puerto Rican rum makers.

This is not hard to believe given what has taken place in the past. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)  told everyone to pass the Affordable Care Act in order to see what was in it, but then came out and declared that they “ read the bill .”

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) took to the Senate floor in June and  ripped the Democrat Senators a new one over flopping legislation down for a vote without reading it. “For goodness sakes, a six hundred page bill and I got it this morning. Not one member of the Senate will read this bill before we vote on it,” Paul blasted. Paul was one of eight Senators that  voted against the legislation.

Since they are going around passing legislation without knowing what in the world is in it, why doesn’t someone slip in language that nullifies the National Defense Authorization Act, the Patriot Act, the Affordable Care Act, and any and all unconstitutional verbage in these bills and stick it to the liberals in the Senate?

UPDATE: Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) claims that the bill was given to the Senate back in August, which it was. However, with all the wrangling that has been taking place with amendments and talks, it would be prudent for Senators to have had the opportunity to go back over the legislation they were presented with just minutes before the vote. Here’s Congresswoman Foxx’s  statement :

“Since May House Republicans have acted in good faith to generate ideas to avert the fiscal cliff. Our balanced proposals have been designed to protect American jobs and begin the hard work of overcoming America’s debt crisis. Thus, I could not in good conscience vote for a Senate “deal” that delays savings while expanding spending subsidies, ignoring the real drivers of debt, and using harmful new taxes as justification for government growth.

“The process of resolving the fiscal cliff has been ugly. The Senate received H.R. 8 from the House of Representatives on August 1 of 2012. But the Senators waited until December 31 to weigh in on the legislation. The proposal they finalized in the early hours of January 1, though deeply flawed, does clear up uncertainty for families and small businesses trying to prepare for the future. I am glad for that, but feel for the many job creators who will face a higher tax burden in yet another year of tepid economic recovery.

“Regardless of the complexity of any manufactured Washington crisis, I will continue to be guided by principle. As a defender of taxpayers, I hold the United States government to a standard of spending your hard-earned money minimally and wisely. That means new government spending must be off-set.

“Washington rhetoric cannot mask the fact that the country’s debt crisis and consequent fiscal cliff are symptoms of the larger problem of uncontrollable government spending. 2012 yielded the third highest annual tax revenue in American history. Sadly, government spending was just as historic. Unless spending is reined in and trillion dollar deficits become a thing of the past, no level of tax increases will solve the problem.

“Rather than fixating on Clinton-era tax rates, the President and Senate Democrats would better serve the country working to shrink the federal government to a Clinton-era size. America’s catastrophic national debt demands it. The debt clock is ticking.”