Tag Archives: Omnibus spending bill

What Did You Get Done This Week?

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On Wednesday, The Federalist  posted an article about the federal budget discussions. Personally, I am not opposed to a government shutdown. During the rather drawn-out election of Kevin McCarthy, one of the things that was discussed (and I thought agreed to) was a return to the budget process requiring individual votes on the 12 appropriations bills that make up what’s known as the “omnibus package. This supposedly would be the end of the omnibus packages and the threat of government shutdowns.

On March 10, 2022, I posted the following:

Someone asked the website Quora when the last federal budget was passed using the conventional budget process.

The website posted the following answer:

Usually a President’s first year in Office is under the previous President’s budget. However knowing that Barack Obama was winning, the Congressional Democrats used Continuing Resolution to push the budget forward. With Obama in Office, they passed the full budget in April 2009. I think since then we have only operated in a world of continuing resolutions and an omnibus budget. After gaining the control of the congress in 2014, Republican promised to return to regular order and it hasn’t happened yet.

To answer your question, the 2007–08 budget was probably the last regular budget passed.

The Federalist reports:

While we gleefully await the federal government’s bankruptcy at the end of the month, here’s my favorite Elon Musk quote: “What did you get done this week?”

Every Republican in Congress should have to answer that question to the American taxpayer (you and me) before even thinking about giving another cent to Ukraine, the Pentagon, the DOJ, Health and Human Services, and every other department that is, at best, useless, and at worst, packed with paper pushers overtly harassing the people who pay their outsized salaries (you and me).

The Musk quote came in a strikingly similar context. In a text chat, some overpaid Twitter executive lectured him about the “internal distraction” that Musk’s public comments about the company had made after he purchased a large portion of its shares. “Next time we speak, I’d like to provide you perspective on the level of internal distraction right now and how it [sic] hurting our ability to do work,” the executive said.

“What did you get done this week?” Musk replied.

What makes it so good is that there is no answer to the question. Just some Twitter nerd versed only in talking about “optimization” (meaningless) and “company culture” (zero productivity value) blankly staring in a freeze.

The article concludes:

Members of Biden’s own party are dogging his open-border policies. Health and Human Services melted its own credibility on “science,” then recently flirted with recommending public masking again. The Justice Department is found out over and over again to be hostile toward the rule of law and the will of the people.

Which of the seven heads on this monstrosity is even bothering to smile at me? Why would I care if the federal government is funded when it does nothing for me? What’s worse, it functions in ways that make clear it deeply resents me.

Tell me, Republicans. What did you get done this week?

That’s a really good question.

 

 

So What’s In The Bill?

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Congress is set to pass the omnibus spending bill before the end of the year unless common sense intervenes. On Wednesday, The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article detailing some of the things in the bill.

Here are some of the things in the omnibus bill:

$375 million for a new FBI building

$230 million for border security technology plus $1.56B in border processing funds that can’t be used for security 

$70 million for salmon 

$575 million for family planning where population growth harms the environment

$65.7 million for international fisheries commissions 

$2.6 billion for January 6 prosecutions

$410 million to enhanced border security in the Middle East 

$200 million for the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund 

$300 million to prepare for an influenza pandemic  

$7.5 million to study ‘domestic radicalization phenomenon’ 

$3.6 million for Michelle Obama trail 

$26 million fo the House of Representatives’ Office of Diversity and Inclusion  

$2 million for the ‘Great Blacks in Wax’ museum in Baltimore 

$3 million for the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York 

$3 million for bee-friendly highways 

$15.2 million for a Vaccine Injury Trust Fund

Designation of a Ukrainian Independence Park in Washington, D.C. 

Renaming of a federal building in San Francisco to the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building

Renaming an existing school lunch program the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program 

Renaming the Lake Champlain Basin Program as the Patrick Leahy Lake Champlain Basin Program

Renaming an FBI building in Alabama after Richard Shelby

Any Senator who votes for this bill needs to be voted out of office as soon as possible.

Refusing To Let The Newly-Elected Congress Do Their Job

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According to the U.S. Constitution, spending bills initiate in the U.S. House of Representatives. There is a specific budget process (that has been ignored since 2007) that is supposed to be followed. There is also a new Republican majority  in the House of Representatives that will be seated in January. Theoretically, they would be the ones to set the budget for the coming fiscal year. They were elected in the hope that they would put the brakes on the runaway spending of the Biden administration. That’s one of many reasons Republicans won the House. Republicans did not take the Senate. One of the reasons for that may be found in the actions of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Aside from directing funding away from candidates who might not have supported him, his voting record is questionable at best. Right now he is part of a group of Senators working to pass a spending bill that will usurp the power of the incoming House of Representatives.

On Tuesday morning, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is threatening to tank the legislation of Senate Republicans who back the omnibus spending bill being considered this week, setting up a showdown with his counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Bills from Republican senators, including McConnell himself, will be “dead on arrival” in the House under his speakership, McCarthy warned, throwing his weight behind a letter signed by 13 Republicans in the House vowing to whip against legislation from lawmakers who cast a “yes” vote later this week on the spending bill.

I totally support Representative McCarthy on this move.

The article continues:

McCarthy has publicly pressed McConnell to change course on the omnibus, but a conservative flank in the House wants McCarthy to go further and “declare war” on McConnell-backed bills if he votes for the $1.7 trillion spending bill. McCarthy is currently seeking to court a handful of defections within his conference that threaten to derail his speakership bid, given the narrow 222-seat majority House Republicans will have in January.

The group of 13 congressmen is demanding the Senate “refrain from entertaining any spending bill that extends beyond the first few months” of the new year so that the GOP can negotiate a budget when it has control of the lower chamber.

“We are obliged to inform you that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill — including the Republican leader,” the Monday letter sent to GOP senators said.

“Senate Republicans have the 41 votes necessary to stop this and should do so now and show the Americans who elected you that they weren’t wrong in doing so,” the letter continued. “This slated omnibus spending bill is an indefensible assault on the American people. It is an assault on the separation of powers. It is an assault on fiscal responsibility. It is an assault on basic civic decency.”

If this bill is not stopped, then there is no reason to vote for a Republican. They are as tone-deaf to the wishes of the American people as the Democrats.

This Explains A Lot

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Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article that explains a few things that were curious at the time. When viewing these events, it’s a good idea to consider the underlying currents–establishment Republicans don’t want the wall any more than the Democrats. Their reasons are different, but the goal is the same. That is why the Secure Fence Act of 2006 was never actually carried out.

100 percent fed up detailed the timeline of events following the passage of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 in an article posted on August 16, 2015.

Here are some highlights from that timeline:

In his speech in El Paso on immigration reform on May 10, 2011, Obama declared that the fence along the border with Mexico is “now basically complete.” Like much of what comes out of the Obama administration, that was a lie. What was supposed to be built was a double-layered fence with barbed wire on top, and room for a security vehicle to patrol between the layers. Except for 36 of the seven-hundred-mile fence, what was built looks like the picture above or the one below.

This is the above picture:

This is the below picture:

Somehow the two pictures do not appear to be the same.

So what happened? The article reports:

The first blow against the promised fence was made by Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican Senator from Texas, at the urging of DHS she proposed an amendment to give the Department discretion to decide what type of fence was appropriate in different areas. The law was amended to read,
“Nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary of Homeland Security to install fencing, physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors in a particular location along an international border of the United States, if the Secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain operational control over the international border at such location.”
Hutchison’s amendment was included in a federal budget bill in late 2007 despite the fact that Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., had a cow…he argued the amendment effectively killed the border fence promised in the 2006 bill, he was right. Hutchison’s intentions may have been honorable, but she didn’t foresee Barack Obama being the next president.

The article concludes:

Here’s the bottom line. Back in 2006, the people of the U.S. were promised a border fence. Since then thanks to Kay Bailey Hutchison and Barack Obama 95% of the fence wasn’t built. The arguments against the fence are bogus especially if you look at Israel’s history. It’s time for America to demand that its leaders build the fence they promised. No one can honestly say it wont work, after all, it hasn’t been tried.

Yesterday after an interview with President Trump, The Daily Caller reported:

President Donald Trump says former House Speaker Paul Ryan promised to secure wall funding while Republicans controlled both Houses in exchange for the president’s signature on the 2018 omnibus spending bill.

But after the president signed the massive, $1.3 trillion spending package, Ryan reneged on his commitment.

“Well, I was going to veto the omnibus bill and Paul told me in the strongest of language, ‘Please don’t do that, we’ll get you the wall.’ And I said, ‘I hope you mean that, because I don’t like this bill,’” the president recounted in an exclusive Wednesday interview with The Daily Caller.

“Paul told me in the strongest of terms that, ‘please sign this and if you sign this we will get you that wall.’ Which is desperately needed by our country. Humanitarian crisis, trafficking, drugs, you know, everything — people, criminals, gangs, so, you know, we need the wall.”

“And then he went lame duck,” Trump said.

“And once he went lame duck, it was just really an exercise in waving to people and the power was gone so I was very disappointed. I was very disappointed in Paul because the wall was so desperately needed. And I’ll get the wall.”

Paul Ryan began well. He stood up to President Obama on various issues (without actually accomplishing anything). He began as a budget hawk, trying to keep spending under control. However, he somehow became part of the Republican establishment and went down the wrong path. I seriously doubt that he ever had any intention of building the wall.

The New Boss Seems No Different From The Old Boss

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Paul Ryan took over as Speaker of the House in October. It was hoped that he would do a better job of opposing the liberal policies of President Obama than John Boehner. It seems to me that all he has accomplished is to advance the policies of the Republican establishment while ignoring the voice of the conservatives which form the base of the party. The more unhappy Republicans become with their leadership in Washington, the stronger the candidacy of Donal Trump for President becomes. As I have previously stated, I am not a Trump supporter, but I believe he represents a temper tantrum on the part of the Republican base, and the Washington Republicans keep adding fuel to the fire by not responding to that base.

My evaluation of the omnibus budget deal is based on two articles from Power Line. One is written by Paul Mirengoff about the impact of the bill on the Department of Education, and the other is written by John Hinderaker about the impact of the bill on American workers.

Mr. Mirengoff states:

I want to focus on one area that I care very much about — education. The omnibus bill apparently grants a 7 percent increase in the budget for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

This outfit does all it can to impose the left’s agenda at the K-12 and college levels. In doing so, it often ignores the law, defining perfectly legal conduct as unlawful.

If the OCR’s resources are stretched thin, it’s because of its overreach, based on a willful misreading of the law. By increasing OCR’s budget, Congress rewards its misconduct. The budget should be slashed, not increased.

The article lists some of the recent actions of the OCR:

1. OCR’s school discipline policy has encouraged districts across the country to adopt racial quotas in discipline.

2. OCR’s guidance purports to convert ordinary incidents of schoolyard bullying into violations of federal law.

3. OCR misstates applicable law on sexual assault and harassment on campus, encourages unfair treatment for some accused students, and allows colleges and universities to abridge First Amendment rights.

These people don’t need more money–they just need to go away.

John Hinderaker deals with the impact of the bill on American workers. He quotes Senator Jeff Sessions:

The more than 2,000 page year-end funding bill contains a dramatic change to federal immigration law that would increase by as much as four-fold the number of low-wage foreign workers provided to employers under the controversial H-2B visa program, beyond what is currently allowed. These foreign workers are brought in exclusively to fill blue collar non-farm jobs in hotels, restaurants, construction, truck driving, and many other occupations sought by millions of Americans.

At a time of record immigration – with a full 83% of the electorate wanting immigration frozen or reduced – the GOP-led Congress is about to deliver Obama a four-fold increase to one of the most controversial foreign worker programs. The result? Higher unemployment and lower wages for Americans.

…The bill also funds sanctuary cities and illegal alien resettlement, allows the President to continue issuing visas to countries that refuse to repatriate violent criminal aliens, and funds the President’s ongoing lawless immigration actions – including his unimpeded 2012 executive amnesty for alien youth.

As feared, the effect is to fund the President’s entire immigration agenda.

I suspect that there are many Americans who would have been willing to endure the non-hardship of a government shutdown to avoid these two aspects of the omnibus spending bill. It really is time for new leadership in Washington. No one there (with very few exceptions) is listening to the American people who voted them into office.

This Is The Vote On The Omnibus Spending Bill

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Taken from The Blaze:

Please remember this vote during the coming election. The people who voted yes voted to increase the budget in every area except one–they cut the retirement benefits of our military.

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