The sound of jingle bells and the smell of jet fuel are powerful drugs that appear to be overcoming the few remaining conservative principles of the Capitol Hill Republican leadership as Congress rushes to approve a $1.7 trillion spending package that will put much of the Democrats’ Far Left agenda beyond the reach of the incoming House Republican majority.
How bad is the massive Omnibus spending bill?
Senator Mike Braun joined Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and Rick Scott for a press conference yesterday to review the 4,155 page, $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill revealed late Monday night and expected to be voted on this week.
“We’re running trillion-dollar deficits, and anyone who thinks that’s a good business plan is blind to the reality of why that’s not going to work in the long run. We can’t just accept this as business-as-usual. We get rolled by the other side of the aisle because they are unapologetic about turning the federal government into their growth business, and we as conservatives complain about it but then go along with it. The only people coming out on the short end here are the people we say we’re trying to serve. Borrowing money from your kids and grandkids without putting any forethought into what you’re spending is a terrible business plan,” Senator Mike Braun said in his opening remarks at the press conference.
You can watch the entire news conference here:
In a joint statement issued to FOX News before the news conference, Senators Rick Scott and Mike Lee said in part:
The national debt has grown by nearly $5 TRILLION to an insane $31 TRILLION, causing record inflation that is nearly four times higher than the Federal Reserve target of 2%...
And there is a historically uncontrolled humanitarian and national security crisis on America’s southern border due to President Biden’s radical open border and pro-amnesty policies, allowing over two million illegal crossings and massive amounts of fentanyl and other lethal drugs into American cities killing our citizens…
Given these Democrat "achievements," it would be a blatant dereliction of our duty for Senate Republicans to allow Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to ram through a so-called "omnibus" bill – which would fund the entirety of the Pelosi-Schumer spending agenda through most of next year…
In fact, since 1954, control of the House has changed five times and there has NEVER been an instance of Congress passing an omnibus spending bill before a new House majority takes power. Doing so now would not only defy precedent, it would unfairly tie the hands of the incoming Republican majority.
Prior to the news conference Senator Ron Johnson, meeting with another group of Senators, said, “In 2019 – before the COVID-19 spending increase – federal spending totaled $4.4 trillion. As we approach the end of 2022, a 36% increase in spending to $6.0 trillion has been estimated.”
Sen. Johnson then posed the question “Why haven’t we gone back to normal spending?” now that the pandemic is over.
“We, as 535 members of Congress, we literally are the Board of Directors of the largest financial entity in the world and we never talk numbers,” Sen. Johnson explained. “I’ve been asking colleagues, I’ve been asking reporters, do you know how much the federal government spent last year? And most people I ask look pretty flummoxed. I say, don’t feel bad. It’s not your fault. It’s because we never talk about it.”
“We're mortgaging our kids’ futures. This is killing us from a financial standpoint. It's got to stop. This process has to stop which is why I supported Senator Lee's unanimous consent request yesterday to pass a CR, as much as we all hate CRs, the dysfunction they represent. Pass a CR that gets us into next year. Not only to give a Republican House an opportunity to respond to the people that put them in place, but also to give us time to start understanding what these numbers actually mean,” Sen. Johnson continued.
What DO these numbers actually mean? One way to find out would be to read the bill – most of the time each House of Congress waives reading of the bill – but there’s a process for Members of the Senate to force the reading of the bill.
In the Senate one member – yes, just one member – can object to waiving the reading of the bill, and as long as he or she stays on the Floor the bill reading must continue through all 4,155 pages. In the House the Democrat Majority can vote to waive the reading of the bill, but the House Minority Leader, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, has unlimited time to speak on the bill, and he can read it into the record if he so chooses, burning-up hours of floor time to postpone the vote, potentially until it is too late to get the process done before the new House GOP majority takes over.
We urge CHQ readers to pick-up the phone to call their Senators and their Representative and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (the Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121) tell them you demand they object to any motion to waive the reading of the bill and that you demand they take to the Floor to personally read the bill word-by-word, page-by-page if that’s what it takes to defeat this 4,155 page, $1.7 trillion monstrosity.
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