On Thursday the Senate passed the Continuing Resolution that had been the subject of my last two postings - the vote was 87 to 13. The measure will extend funding of the federal government until April 8 after BO signs it. It contains no attempt to defund Obamacare, crippling environmental regulations, or other priorities of BO which means BO's programs move forward even with the Tea Party electoral success last November. Hard to keep fighting - isn't it?
For those of us who are lovers of liberty the past few days has been a dagger in our hearts in that three quarters of the newly elected House Republicans voted for this weak, bottom of the barrel, political consensus type legislation that will not move America away from a government dependent society & its inevitable collapse. Notable Senate disappointments in this vote are Tom Coburn (OK), Ron Johnson (WI), Pat Toomey (PA), & Jeff Sessions (AL). As you all know I was hoping that these men would caucus & vote with Jim DeMint - who campaigned for Johnson & Toomey among others - & not with the establishment old-guard Republicans.
The nine Republicans who voted against the measure were Jim DeMint (SC), Rand Paul (KY), Mike Lee (UT), Marco Rubio (FL), Mike Crapo (ID), John Ensign (NV), Orrin Hatch (UT), Jim Inhofe (OK), & James Risch (ID). The four Democrats who voted against the measure voted against it for the same reason that 104 House Democrats did - they think any spending restraint is too much. It is hard to believe that earlier in the week Nancy Pelosi had voted the same as Mike Pence (their names were in line because of the spelling of their names) & that Jim DeMint & avowed Socialist Bernie Sanders of VT also voted the same way yesterday - but for exactly opposite reasons.
I am personally so very disappointed because I had such hope for the freshman Members of both the House & Senate to start to really turn the entitlement & welfare mindset around. We can see how fragile our Republic is when we are counting on such a small handful of principled men. Totally writing off the status quo favoring freshmen Members now may be premature - but they have a lot to make up for after this week & I for one have to see it to believe it.
Although I share your disappointment please do not feel so bad.
ReplyDeleteNow that these freshman Republicans are in office, many of them are afraid to trim large amounts of money from the various programs - they don't want to be blamed by constituents for cuts to favored programs thereby giving them a good chance of losing the next election.
The worse part of your series of messages last week is that they reveal that we still don't have the kind of quality people in sufficient quantity to pass the FairTax any time soon.
Doug: A sidebar observation. . .My observations of America's wealth are revealing some scary facts. I have traveled internationally for business and pleasure extensively in the last 40 years. Without exception Americans were always the predominate travelers worldwide. Americans can no longer make that claim, we have surrendered our first, second and maybe third place to Germans, Canadians and Europeans at large. Please keep in mind there are no government statistics to confirm or deny this observation - it’s my personal opinion.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who owns and rents a home in Aruba. His clients throughout the last five years have gone from primarily Americans to Germans and Dutch. He tells me when the ships dock again Americans are sparse. Jane just returned from a cruise around Australia and she noticed you could count the Americans on the fingers of one hand. Americans are getting poorer and the rest of the world appears to be getting wealthier.
I am not going to entertain speculation as to why America’s wealth is shrinking compared to our international neighbors other than to say TAXES.