Thread: Omnibus Spending Bill Amounts to a Bundle of Broken Promises

Omnibus Spending Bill Amounts to a Bundle of Broken Promises

Ted Budd / @RepTedBudd / March 22, 2018 / comments



The House of Representatives passed a $1.3 billion omnibus spending bill on Thursday. (Photo: ajansen/Getty Images)

COMMENTARY BY

Ted Budd@RepTedBudd
Ted Budd is the U.S. representative for North Carolina’s 13th district.


There have been three periods of unified Republican control of the federal government since World War II. We are living in the third.

Our country is built on separation of powers, and our people generally favor divided government. When Americans gave us control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency, their message was clear: They were tired of an overpowering federal government, they wanted life protected, and they wanted our border secured.
The latest omnibus bill didn’t pass muster on any of those elements. In many cases, it doesn’t just fail to fulfill thepromises we made to the voters, it outright rejects them.

The bill did not fund the border wall. The $1.6 billion included for the wall is actually explicitly prohibited from allowing the president to build the type of barrier he wants and that we know will be effective—a tall concrete barrier.

In San Diego, where we have such a wall, crossings have fallen by 95 percent. That number is high because some of those crossings have moved to less secure areas, but the effect of the wall is definitely real.
Adding insult to injury, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., got a great deal of money that could potentially go toward his pet project—a tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey. That contrast—yes to tunnel funding, no to wall funding—is not a positive reflection on this bill.

The bill does nothing to stop funding from going to Planned Parenthood, a long-time conservative priority that should have been easily accomplished in a government run by Republicans and with a Senate where 10 Democrats are up for re-election in states that President Donald Trump won only two years ago.

Sanctuary cities remain funded under this legislation. These are cities that explicitly refuse to follow federal immigration law.

Congress is explicitly given the power to make immigration law. It should enforce that law, not continue to pay grant money to those who flout it. These sanctuary policies can have deadly consequences—most famously in the case of Kate Steinle in San Francisco.

The process for passing this bill was also terrible. Some opposed the bill, and some supported it, but no one was happy with the way it was considered: 2,232 pages of legislative text for $1.3 trillion in government spending, seen by members for less than 24 hours before voting. There was barely time to glance over it, much less read and absorb.

Last, but certainly not least, the money spent was $138 billion over last year’s omnibus—about $1,500 for every household in our country. That’s an increase of about 18 percent over last year.

That’s not limited government. In fact, it’s the opposite.

At the end of the legislative day, most Americans have a pretty basic expectation: that their elected leaders will try and keep their promises. If this omnibus bill is that effort, then it was far, far from good enough.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/03/22/omnibus-bill-bundle-broken-promises/

The process for passing this bill was also terrible. Some opposed the bill, and some supported it, but no one was happy with the way it was considered: 2,232 pages of legislative text for $1.3 trillion in government spending, seen by members for less than 24 hours before voting. There was barely time to glance over it, much less read and absorb.

Somebody other than trump is running this country. He could have vetoed and reworked parts of it, if he really is the boss.

Originally Posted by artist

Somebody other than trump is running this country. He could have vetoed and reworked parts of it, if he really is the boss.

I don't know if someone else is running the country, but you're absolutely right that Trump could have vetoed the bill and put the ball back in play in the U.S. Congress. He's listening to and taking bad advice (IMO). After all Trump has told us over and over again that he is THE GREAT NEGOTIATOR! Seems to me he could have done more negotiating and less whining about the end result.

I don't disagree that our military needed the increase in spending, however, I find it a little disingenuous of Trump to boast on military spending while signing a bill that doesn't adequately fund our border and interior security. Aren't those items part of our "national security" too?

And importantly his "wall" forbidden - don't think he ever really cared @ that, just blowhard talk. His rallies were really just that. trump will make more money than he ever has before with his job as president. Interesting how a data company was used to gather what the people wanted to hear and therefore the rhetoric at rallies. Whether trump camp knew it was stolen data is another story. Data gathering/use is part of today's world. obama had used data/facebook tactics too.

But the wall, stopping UACs & catch & release, removing all illegal aliens, - all a big nothing 0, a year down the road in this presidency.

He has put his efforts into making money for the rich thru removing industrial regs that protect our health, our nursing homes inhabitants, cutting back $$ to many helpful programs, removing incentives to expand clean renewable energy sources with plenty of jobs and instead has had the time to push for drilling and digging everywhere possible. Americans give them subsidies to expand, that is our tax monies they use to expand toxic industries.

He is a no class jerk! If he doesn't have the time for a balanced contemporary approach, he is useless. Just another run roughshod enabler swamp creature. And he is finding things are being denied left & right. You are in the WH, not trump tower.

Thank God the kids jarvanka seem to be disappearing from the scene. The audacity to push those 2 naive spoiled brats on us, shortchange us of REAL professionals for those 2 sorry excuses.