Senate Vote-a-Rama Sets the Table for Corporate Handouts
Oct. 18, 2017
Senate Vote-a-Rama Sets the Table for Corporate Handouts
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
Note: On Thursday, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on its budget resolution during a marathon legislative session known as vote-a-rama, in which hundreds of symbolic amendments will be offered to the nonbinding budget blueprint, and those that are accepted will be voted on in quick succession on Thursday and Friday. The Senate budget resolution is expected to include tax reconciliation instructions that allow for $1.5 trillion to be added to the deficit over the next 10 years, though outside analyses of the GOP tax plan estimate that it will balloon the deficit much higher. Public Citizen’s experts will be monitoring the vote-a-rama closely. Please contact us to speak with an expert.
This week’s vote-a-rama in the U.S. Senate will set the table for a feeding frenzy of corporate handouts later in the year, when the U.S. Congress must pass appropriations bills before funding expires in December. Stopping poison pill riders that act as earmarks for industry and other well-heeled interests should be a top priority, as these measures have no place in government funding legislation.
This budget resolution contains the ultimate rider: tax reconciliation instructions that would fund gargantuan tax cuts for megarich campaign donors and would lead to the slashing of vital public services such as Medicaid, Medicare, public education and nutrition assistance. Reconciliation is nothing but a partisan money grab: a ploy to let corporations raid the treasury that could not possibly survive the normal legislative process.
###