The $1.7 trillion government spending bill, cleared in the Senate Thursday, is only going to "aggravate the inflation problem and make things tougher for the average American," says Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif.
"It's physically impossible to have read this bill. It's 4,155 pages, and if you read, what 250 words per minute, it would take you close to 60 hours if you read nonstop since the time we got this bill Monday night," Garcia said Thursday during an appearance on Newsmax's "Spicer & Co."
"What's more egregious is the fact that nearly 200 members of Congress didn't even show up this week to vote for themselves or vote against it themselves or to participate in the debates, so this is a massive problem," he added.
"It's $1.7 trillion and when you do the math that's the equivalent of about $409 million per page and this is in comparison to previous years' budgets from, you know, call it 2008 all the way up to 2018.
"The similar budget would have been $1.3 trillion which is still an awful lot of taxpayer money but to do it this late in the game without any real due diligence and opportunity to actually digest the bill and to have such a flagrant number at 1.7 — this is only going to aggravate the inflation problems and make things tougher for the average American."
The bill passed 68-29 in the Senate and now goes to the House for a final vote before it can be signed into law.
It includes about $772.5 billion for domestic programs and $858 billion for defense and would finance federal agencies through the fiscal year at the end of September.
The spending bill was supported by Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., though for different reasons.
McConnell cited the bill's nearly 10% boost in defense spending, which he says will give America's armed forces the funding and certainty needed to ensure the country's security.
"The world's greatest military will get the funding increase that it needs, outpacing inflation," McConnell said. "Meanwhile, non-defense, non-veterans spending will come in below the rate of inflation, for a real-dollar cut."
McConnell faced pushback from many Republicans who don't support the spending bill and resent being forced to vote on such a massive package with so little time before a potential shutdown and the Christmas holiday.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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