And you just displayed your ignorance of politics. Unless Republicans have 60 unified senate seats, they don't really control anything because the Democrats can still stop their agendas.
I know that the dems can do nothing to make them spend more. Repubs love spending.
Bull. The Democrats still have the power to stop spending bills in the Senate. Republicans only have a slight majority.
Now you could make your claim if Republicans had 60 or more votes, but they never have.
So the two choices Republicans had was spend on the things we want and spend on the things Democrats wanted, or we get nothing and likely get blamed for a government shutdown. Either that, or we spend on Democrat things to avoid the shutdown, and we still get nothing.