Government shutdown avoided, but at what price?

The good news is that it appears a possible federal-government shutdown will be avoided. The bad news is spending is going up across the board, and hundreds of billions of dollars will be added to the federal deficit. Congress is poised to approve a new government spending bill, thus avoiding a possible government shutdown, and President Trump has signaled he will sign the measure into law. But once again, our lawmakers have waited until the last minute, and as has been the case, only came to an agreement after Republicans and Democrats got some of what they wanted. The finished spending bill, more than 2300 pages worth of spending, totals $1.4 trillion, and much of it has little to do with keeping the lights on in Washington.For example, the bill would increase the age nationwide for purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21. What does that have to do with the budget? There are more tax breaks for businesses, and more money for both defense and domestic programs. In total there is about $100 billion in new federal spending. There is more money for medical research, fighting the opioid epidemic, more money for Head Start , and $1.4 billion more than the President requested for the U.S. Census. Its like Christmas came early in Washington. Everybody is getting a big, fat present. But the federal government is not Oprah…not everybody should get a car. It seems with this Congress, everybody in federal government is getting more, while the taxpayers are giving more.