Graham, DeMint missing in action on spending bill

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Saturday December 12, 2009 · 11:22 AM PST

2009/12/12 · 11:22

Both Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint decided to forgo voting yea or nay on an important bill that would basically fund necessary domestic agencies beyond the point of inflation.

The $1.1 trillion measure combines much of the year's unfinished budget work — only a $626 billion Pentagon spending measure would remain — into a 1,000-plus-page spending bill that would give the Education Department, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and others increases far exceeding inflation.

Out of all the rhetoric we hear and see out our two Republican senators, we see they cannot put their vote where their mouth is. It's called wiggle room. They don't support Obama, but they don't want to be seen as the scrooges towards domestic funding. How funny. They want their cake and they want to eat it, too.

But one person avoided that - and literally walked miles to do so...

Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an Orthodox Jew who walks miles to the Capitol when voting on the Sabbath, wore a black wool overcoat and brilliant orange scarf — as well as a wide grin — as he provided the crucial 60th vote an hour after the tally started.

But I guess it's not that important to at least stand on the bill that affects so many people in South Carolina. I guess these points mean nothing to the two who carry our votes with them in the Senate.

The measure combines $447 billion in operating budgets with about $650 billion in mandatory payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which provide health coverage for the elderly, disabled and poor. It wraps together six individual spending bills and also contains more than 5,000 home-state projects sought by lawmakers in both parties.

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