Spending Bill Passes House

Well, after a tense afternoon, the House narrowly passed a $1.1. trillion spending package which will keep the government out of shutdown until September of next year: "The accord was reached just hours before the midnight deadline, in a 219-206 vote... The legislation now heads to the Senate, which is expected to pass it in the coming days."

The bill passed, despite strong opposition from a coalition of Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Financial Services Committee ranking member Maxine Waters, and supported by Senator Elizabeth Warren:

The split in the Democratic Party dramatically burst into view when Representative Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader and one of President Obama's most loyal supporters, broke with the administration over a provision in the bill that would roll back regulation of the Dodd-Frank Act, which Ms. Pelosi said was a giveaway to big banks whose practices helped fuel the Great Recession. She spoke on the House floor in the early afternoon, expressing her strong opposition to the bill.

In response, President Obama and Vice-President Biden made "a furious round of phone calls to try to persuade wavering Democrats." And Rep. Waters reports that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was making calls to lawmakers last night, telling them to support the bill.

"I think [our opposition] got hurt when Jamie Dimon and the president started to whip," Waters told reporters after the vote. "That's when I think we lost some votes."

...Waters and progressives opposed the budget due to changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Law that were supported by Dimon and other big banks.

"What does it say? It just seems very odd," Waters said. "It is just very strange that the two of them would be working for the support of this bill."

When asked if she thought that Obama had sold out to Wall Street, Waters replied: "That's not for me to determine. I know that the president was whipping. I know that Jamie Dimon was whipping and calling directly into members' offices. And that's odd. That's an odd combination."

That's a very polite way of putting it. An odd combination. The President and the CEO of JPMorgan Chase whipping votes together, for a bill that progressives worry will give outsize influence to banks. Welp.

The good news is that government workers will continue to get their paychecks, and that is no small thing. The bad news is that the threat of shutdown has been used, again, to usher in legislation that is not in the best interests of the people who most need those paychecks. Or anyone else in the 99%.

It's up to the Senate now. But the President wants it, and he's almost certainly going to get it. Happy Holidays, Jamie Dimon. Hope you like your shiny new present.