Sheldon Whitehouse actually said...

there is a quality of this just being a very seamy and disreputable side of the legislative business

What are we going to do about the $1.2 trillion that goes out the back door of the tax code through loopholes?

from the political perspective, if you are a lobbyist for a big special interest and you go to the Appropriations Committee to get some spec...

There are legal arguments and policies that fall outside a particular political ideology. That does not make them outside the mainstream.