i m mehdi hasan. september was supposed to be the month in which congress passed hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending and guess what? the house did. by a vote of 316-113. now you might be scratching your head and saying didn t the bipartisan infrastructure bill fail to come to a vote on thursday night? isn t the budget reconciliation bill nowhere near ready for a vote? you re right on both counts. i m not talking about those bills. i m talking about a bill that flew quietly under the radar in the house like a stealth bomber on the occasions in which it actually works. a bill which authorized $740 billion for the defense department. $768 billion total for defense. ka ching ka ching. see president biden submitted a $715 billion budget to congress for the defense department to which members of both parties said, as if. and just threw in $25 billion extra they found under the couch cushions presumably. yeah. in a supposedly divided congress they gave bipartisan support
friday, biden reportedly told house democrats to bring that price down to somewhere between 1.9 and $2.3 trillion over ten years. bernie sanders, who favored a larger bill than the $3.5 trillion, was actually questioned about that by chuck todd on meet the press this morning. have you accepted the fact that it s not going to be $3.5 trillion? that s not my understanding what he said. what he said, there is going to have to be give and take on both sides. i m not clear he did bring forth a specific number. at the end of the day, this is basically a numbers game. what s the price tag that both factions of the democratic party, the two that are hoeltd holding out on the senate side, can agree on. it has never been about the price tag. it s about what we want to deliver. i don t feel the need to give a number. my number was 3.5. what about 1.5? that s not going to happen. why is that why won t it add up to that? that s too small to get our priorities in. it s
flew quietly under the radar like an f-32 stealth bomber when it works. it authorized $740 billion for the defense department. $768 billion total. president biden submitted a $715 billion budget to congress for the defense department to which members of both parties said as if and just threw in $25 billion extra that they found under the couch cushions presumably. yeah, in a supposedly divided congress, they gave bipartisan support to spend more money on bombs and bullets, humvees and fighter jets. look at the future projection on this graph. defense spending goes up in the ten years from 2025 to 2035. it s a regrettable fact of life in america that we argue over funding for health care and to address child hunger and to, you know, save the planet s ability to sustain human life but hey, quickly and quietly passing hundreds of billions to blow things up and interfere in conflicts overseas. no problem, count me in. that s $7 trillion for defense over ten years, which is double
About the bombshell allegations being made by his client tonight and ozzie media is shutting down less than a week after a new york times report uncovered a string of lies and misrepresentations surrounding the company. tonight, i m talking to ben smith, the times reporter that broke that story. let s get started. all right. stalemate sunday, that s where washington is tonight as divisions within the democratic ranks keep two bills that are critical to president joe biden s agenda from getting to his desk. to be fair, it s not exactly the entire democratic caucus that s in fighting. it s actually two senators. two out of 50 that are holding it up. now progressives remain steadfast in that the bipartisan
stalemate sunday. that s where washington is tonight as divisions within the democratic ranks keep two bills that are critical to joe biden s agenda from getting to his desk. to be fair, it s not exactly the entire democratic caucus that s in fighting. it s actually two senators, two out of 50 that are holding it up. progressives remain steadfast in their demand that the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which has passed the senate, being denied a vote in the house until after the passage of the larger social spending reconciliation bill, the build back better act. apparently, there are some trust issues between the left and the right flanks of the party. you will remember that price tag of the reconciliation bill had been around $3.5 trillion over ten years. that s important. ten years, not one. in a visit to the capitol