Reprinted with Permission from Alternet
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blocked a call for unanimous consent on Wednesday to push forward with a funding extension for the victims of 9/11, claiming that the new spending should be paid for.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) called for the bill to be passed in the Senate by unanimous consent, but even a single lawmaker’s objection can block the move and slow down the process. The measure is still widely expected to pass, but Paul wants to use the opportunity to complain about the national debt.
“We need to address our massive debt in this country,” he said “We have a $22 trillion debt. We’re adding debt at about a trillion dollars a year. And therefore any new spending that we are approaching, any new program that’s going to have the longevity of 70-80 years, should be offset by cutting spending that’s less valuable. We need to at least have this debate.”
Of course, Paul voted in favor of the GOP’s 2017 tax cut that was estimated to cost $1.5 trillion in ten years. Despite howls about the party’s hypocrisy at the time, the Republicans refused to balance the massive cuts with any revenue increases.
The extension of the 9/11 victim fund will cost an estimated $10.2 billion over a decade.
“I am deeply disappointed that my colleague has just objected to the desperately needed and urgent bill for our 9/11 first responders,” said Gillibrand. “A bipartisan bill that just earned of 400 votes in the U.S. House of Representatives and has 73 co-sponsors in this chamber.”
Watch a clip of the debate below:
BREAKING: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has blocked an attempt to pass an extension of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, pointing to the country's growing debt and arguing that any new spending should be offset by cuts to other spending. (via @thehill) https://t.co/VGGoALb9qV pic.twitter.com/xQGCcZupjg
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) July 17, 2019
The billionaire Koch brothers were apparently quite pleased with the passage of the GOP’s tax scam bill.
In fact, as International Business Times reports, Charles Koch handed House Speaker Paul Ryan a nearly $500,000 thank-you gift mere days after the House passed its version of the bill.
And Ryan’s Democratic challenger, ironworker and military veteran Randy Bryce, made sure that these massive gifts and the context around them did not go unnoticed.
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Randy Bryce
✔@IronStache
Paul Ryan passed a 1.5 trillion dollar tax bill that takes from working people to give to the super rich.
Days later, he got $500,000 in Koch contributions.https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/koch-paysout-to-ryan-after-taxlaw_us_5a63ce41e4b0dc592a09697c …
Paul Ryan Collected $500,000 In Koch Contributions Days After House Passed Tax Law
That’s peanuts compared with what the Koch brothers will save.
huffingtonpost.com
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Ryan would be hard-pressed to claim that these donations had nothing at all to do with the passage of the bill, considering the Koch brothers spent millions on the effort to sell the scam to the American people.
Bryce has been taking Ryan to task from the beginning for the GOP’s inability to actually get anything substantive done that benefits everyday Americans and for refusing to defend the nation from Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric around North Korea and potential use of nuclear weapons.
It’s no wonder Ryan, who has held his House seat since 1999, is embarrassingly close to the relatively unknown Bryce in early polling, and why he may even be considering retiring after this year.
Accepting massive donations from the super-rich just days after inflicting the tax scam bill on working Americans is unlikely to widen that gap in Ryan’s favor.