To my surprise, both chambers of Congress have approved the omnibus government funding bill and a package of tax cuts which were sent to the president's desk for a signature today.
The package of legislation does not achieve conservative goals of defunding Planned Parenthood, halting refugee resettlement, or blocking funds for the international climate deal, and on top of that it will add over $600 billion to the deficit over 10 years.
To be clear, the package of tax cuts was passed with primarily Republican votes and with no plan to pay for it.
The “tax extenders” bill was approved in a 318-109 vote, with 241 Republicans joining 77 Democrats in backing the measure. [...]
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that the tax bill will cost $622 billion over 10 years. Tax provisions in the omnibus will cost an additional $58 billion over 10 years, JCT said.
Don't get me wrong, there are some tax breaks in the package that could be considered a "win" by Democrats, such as a permanent expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), but it's remarkable that Republicans have so completely abandoned the idea for paying for expenditures and now openly embrace higher deficits.
The government funding side of the package of legislation will also add to the deficit to a lesser degree, but it was passed with more Democratic than Republican votes. Republicans are evidently more keen on the idea of deficit spending than they are funding basic governance.
RIP "Fiscal Responsibility" 2009-2015