In a bipartisan vote on Thursday, the House passed a truly massive omnibus spending bill spanning 2,232 pages and some $1.3 TRILLION. The spending increases that the bill called for would help to jack up our already out of control $21 TRILLION national debt. But for both ABC’s World News Tonight and CBS Evening News, the bigger concern was that there was no solution for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News didn’t mention the spending bill at all.
Both ABC and CBS only featured respective news briefs dedicated to the topic, which lasted 23 seconds in both cases.
“Congress has just over 24 hours to avert a government shutdown. Today the House approving a $1.3 trillion in spending, including $1.6 billion for boarding security and fencing. $700 billion for the military, $600 million for election security and $50 million in grants for school safety.” ABC anchor David Muir reported. “Not in the bill, anything about DACA and the dreamers. The Senate now has until midnight tomorrow to approve it.”
The news brief from CBS anchor Jeff Glor was quite similar:
The House approved a $1.3 trillion spending bill today with bipartisan support from a majority of Republicans and Democrats. It significantly increases the military's budget and provides $1.6 billion for a border wall over the next six months. It takes no action on DACA the program that protects immigrants brought here illegally as children.
While ABC noted that Congress had 24 hours to avert a government shutdown, none of them noted the bill contained 2,232 pages or wondered how Congress was supposed to read it all in such a short time.
In fact, to make a point about how ridiculous the situation was, Republican Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) printed out the entire bill and live-tweeted as he went through it. “FYI- The 2200+ page, budget-busting Omnibus has been printing for two hours in my office and still isn’t done,” the account said. “Well here it is, all 2,232 budget-busting pages. The House already started votes on it. The Senate is expected to soon. No one has read it. Congress is broken,” a follow-up tweet said with a picture of a frustrated-looking Paul.
This kind of warped sense of priorities demonstrates just how out of touch the liberal networks ware with average Americans. The national debt is not just a major economic concern but also a national security and societal problem since the cost will be passed on the future generations.
Transcripts below:
ABC
World News Tonight
March 22, 2018
6:45:19 PM Eastern [23 seconds]DAVID MUIR: Congress has just over 24 hours to avert a government shutdown. Today the House approving a $1.3 trillion in spending, including $1.6 billion for boarding security and fencing. $700 billion for the military, $600 million for election security and $50 million in grants for school safety. Not in the bill, anything about DACA and the dreamers. The Senate now has until midnight tomorrow to approve it.
(....)
CBS Evening News
March 22, 2018
6:40:11 PM Eastern [23 Seconds]JEFF GLOR: The House approved a $1.3 trillion spending bill today with bipartisan support from a majority of Republicans and Democrats. It significantly increases the military's budget and provides $1.6 billion for a border wall over the next six months. It takes no action on DACA the program that protects immigrants brought here illegally as children.
