Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky declared today that he would not support an omnibus spending bill to fund the government. “If this election showed us anything, it’s that Americans don’t want Congress passing trillion dollar bills that have been thrown together behind closed doors,” McConnell said.
You know which bill he means. “We’ve seen what happens when Democrats rush legislation and try to jam it through at the last minute, with no time for review, or for the American people to learn what’s actually in the bill. The Cornhusker Kickback and Louisiana Purchase are fresh on their minds,” McConnell continued.
Why would the Democrats need to do such a thing to fund the federal government? Because House Democrats somehow never got around to doing it the right way in the past Congress. They didn’t pass any appropriations bills last year. All they did was release a flood of expensive earmarks, which are currently scuttling around in the dark corners of the Capitol, to the disgust of freshman representatives.
Were you under the impression our massive central government needed its $3.5 trillion budget to carefully manage our national affairs, and scientifically address problems too delicate to be left at the tender mercies of the greedy free market? Well, those wise politicians forgot to fill the gas tank before they drove our federal government into a ditch, and the President keeps saying it doesn’t go in reverse, so they’re going to stomp on the accelerator and hope we can’t handle the sound of grinding gears.
An omnibus spending bill is an unholy pile of gift certificates Congress gives itself, after utterly failing in its basic duty to assemble a carefully defined list of appropriations. All sorts of things would end up hidden inside such a bill, but you not be given any time to consider them individually. You’d just be expected to pay for it.
The very notion of funding the government this way should convince you Congress does not carefully allocate the national budget. Instead, it decides how much money it thinks it can get away with spending, with scant regard for the funds taxpayers are willing to provide. That’s what the deficit is: spending in excess of revenue.
The old system did not weigh priorities against each other, regarding a dollar paid to one constituency as a dollar that must be denied to another. The idea of cutting spending in one area to fund activity in another provokes howls of outrage from Democrats. Merely reducing the rate of increase in spending is a mortal insult to whichever dependent group was collecting the money. When the deficit becomes too fearful to ignore, the Democrats sigh and announce tax increases are now inevitable, and anyone who opposes them is fiscally irresponsible.
Democrats should be hanging their heads in utter shame for their incompetence at failing to pass a proper budget. Indeed, a rational system would no longer tolerate the presence of Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the House, let alone permit her to be Minority Leader. Instead, the Democrats view the situation as a fine opportunity to shovel what McConnell calls “a liberal wish list” into an omnibus spending bill, and declare its passage an emergency. They’re not brilliant community organizers devising elegant solutions to America’s problems. They’re shakedown artists screaming at you to cut them a check for a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity that will disappear if you pause to think about it.
