The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 1:

3:05pm- Massive Year-End House Spending Bill. Catie Edmondson of The New York Times reports: “The stopgap spending bill congressional leaders agreed on this week began as a simple funding measure to keep government funds flowing past a Friday night deadline and into early next year, long after House Republicans elect a speaker and President-elect Donald J. Trump is sworn in. But by the time it was rolled out to lawmakers on Tuesday night, it had transformed into a true Christmas tree of a bill, adorned with all manner of unrelated policy measures in the kind of year-end catchall that Republicans have long derided. It is a 1,547-page behemoth of a package with provisions spanning foreign investment restrictions, new health care policies and a stadium for the Washington Commanders.” You can read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/us/politics/spending-bill-explainer.html

3:15pm- While speaking with CNN’s Manu Raju, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said he didn’t realize that the proposed 1,500+ page stopgap spending bill included a provision that would increase the compensation of Congress members by nearly 40%. Rich wonders, has anyone even read this bill?

3:30pm- Did Rich mention he had an op-ed published by Fox News? Matt demands partial credit because he helped with a handful of edits. You can read “The Great Drone Scare Will Flip New Jersey Red in 2025” here: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/great-drone-scare-flip-new-jersey-red-2025

3:40pm- In a recent interview, Governor Gavin Newsom defended the ban of all gas-powered vehicles in California by 2035.

3:45pm- In a post to X, Elon Musk wrote: “No bills should be passed by Congress until Jan 20, when Donald Trump takes office.”