"Cromnibus" Spending Bill - Shutdown Averted!

[The_Doctor]

Michelle Obama actually lost on the white potatoes thing - the potato lobby won on that. But nutrition guidelines generally survived, with schools winning more latitude. So overall, her nutrition legacy will survive, albeit in a somewhat modified form. (I support her on this, btw).

The cap on donations to party funding is probably a good move, if it steers money back into party coffers, and away from third party groups. The money would be doled out and disbursed by elected representatives, which is probably a step up better from the current arrangement. So I like that. (And I don't like McCain-Feingold). Both parties probably liked that one.

Re, the Wall Street provision. I don't believe derivatives were at the heart of the crash, anyway. The ratings of these derivatives, yes (and how widespread they were), but not the derivatives themselves. So per se, remember the securities agencies and the like got increased funding, so it wasn't a bad provision. It won't be on the scale of Glass-Steagall's repeal (which I don't think caused the crash either).

The DC pot provision is toothless, as the referendum was, apparently according to Delegate Eleanor Norton, self-funding. The measure is just entirely self-funded.

Seems to me a slightly center-right bill that gave some goodies to the GOP but it wasn't a landmark bill. The White House is right. This is the best deal they could have gotten. Any deal negotiated in January would have been much more conservative, given the Senate will pass into Republican hands.