Establishment Republican Tax & Spending Bills Continue BO's Dependency Programs

"I think the Democrats really got basically everything they wanted & the Republicans got much less than I would have expected." - Lily Batchelder, former tax aide to BO speaking about the $650 billion tax bill passed by the House that was merged with the $1,150 billion Omnibus spending bill that was passed by the Senate & signed into law by BO on December 19. 

 

"Everything we have done for the last five years as a Republican majority we just undid this week." - Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador, one of nine founding members of the House Freedom Caucus speaking about the aforementioned Omnibus spending bill.

 

click on graph to enlarge

 

House Speaker Paul Ryan, referring to the Omnibus spending bill that funds the federal government until September 30, 2016 – just in time for its expiration & renewal to be a factor in the presidential election - said that "no one gets exactly what they want" – & I certainly did not get what I wanted but knew all the time what we were going to get – a broad spending & tax bill that was negotiated as usual behind closed doors strictly on Democrat terms in which Republicans breathed a sigh of relief just to not have the government shut down as a result of the appropriations portion of the U.S. budget & spending process.

 

See lists below for those who voted against the Omnibus spending bill.  Any Member of Congress not on the lists below voted with the establishment Republicans that gave BO more than he expected.  Note presidential candidate Marco Rubio "not voting" - meaning he stayed on the campaign trail & did not show up for the floor vote in the Senate.

 

The 2,009 page Omnibus spending bill was released shortly before 2 AM on Wednesday December 16.  The bill was passed & signed into law on Saturday December 19 – meaning that no one read it & we will find out what is in it to our detriment during 2016.  Not a good likelihood for a Happy New Year.

 

In short, there is no difference between Boehner being Speaker or Ryan – the result is the same because the deck is stacked against the Republicans @ least for overpromising during the 2014 senatorial campaign when they pledged to fight back against BO's onslaughts if Republicans gained a majority in the Senate & maintained their majority in the House.  To the untrained eye these majorities would seem to put Congress on a footing to @ least partially put a check on BO's remaining time in office.

 

This simplistic view did not take into account that the Senate rules require 60 votes to bring a measure to cloture – otherwise there is deadlock.

 

This point is best illustrated in 2008 when BO won the presidency & Democrats had a majority in both chambers of Congress including a 60 vote super-majority in the Senate – some center right country isn't it?  Even with this commanding position it took over 14 months for ObamaCare to be signed into law – remember the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, the disputed 300 vote Senate win of Al Franken in Minnesota, the death of Ted Kennedy, the party switch by Arlene Specter from Republican to Democrat, & the tricky budget reconciliation legislative maneuver that allowed ObamaCare to finally pass 56 to 43 in March 2010.  The Republicans have no where near BO's original commanding position being six votes short of the Senate super-majority meaning that the Democrats control the agenda unless the Republicans are prepared to shut down the government – which of course they are not.

 

Shortly after the passage of the Omnibus spending bill I watched a news conference in which Senate Democrats Reid, Durbin, Murray, & Schumer appeared – Schumer bragged about the Omnibus spending bill with its higher spending levels, not only above those specified in the sequester, but even higher than BO had suggested.  The final number is $80 billion over the sequester level during the next two years.

 

Is there any wonder Republicans are furious?  For starters: 1) the combined Omnibus spending bill (+$80 billion) & tax bill (+$650 billion) will add $730 billion to the national debt over the next ten years - after the Republicans started the year pledging to totally wipe out deficits over the next decade, 2) ObamaCare will continue to be funded after the House previously had voted to repeal it over three dozen times & Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell assured us he wants to tear it out "root & branch", 3) Planned Parenthood was fully funded @ previous levels as if the barbarous practice of accepting financial payments for the body parts from aborted babies had never happened, 4) sanctuary cities were provided funds to assist & relieve illegal aliens, i.e., welfare to people who are dangerous to all Americans like the man who killed Kate Steinle in SF, 5) Syrian & Iraqi refugees will be admitted to & resettled in America without restriction (including of funds) in accordance with BO's plans, 6) legal immigration under the H-2B visa program was expanded by a factor of four thereby increasing the number of low wage foreign workers to compete with Americans for jobs & ultimately provide votes for Democrat candidates, & 7) many of the welfare programs created by BO's 2009 stimulus law were permanently extended & expanded after being set to lapse in 2017 after BO left office.

 

In brief, none of the trends shown on the graph above or the following ones will even start to be reversed by the actions of the Republican majorities in Congress:

 

 click on graphs to enlarge

 

So why did Ryan do a Boehner-like cave?  Ryan, as did Boehner (& McConnell), knows that Americans who are receiving welfare benefits are much more interested in continuing receiving these benefits than they are about discussing budget deficits & the national debt, Planned Parenthood's profits from harvesting aborted babies' parts no matter how repulsive, or sanctuary cities who protect murderers, rapists, robbers, aggravated assaulters, & other convicted felons from the federal government – unless such practice directly affects them.

 

There is no one to blame but ourselves.  Until the mindset of "I deserve, I'm entitled to government benefits" is changed our elected politicians like Boehner or Ryan will keep providing these benefits – I don't mean only weak people like Boehner & Ryan but all of our elected politicians - including the next president of the United States.

 

The needed mindset change is a constant theme on this blog.  America is in urgent need of a return to the bedrock principles that the country was founded upon & originally followed that produced the liberty to abundance & prosperity stage of our founding – limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise.

 

It is these bedrock principles & needed mindset changes that De Tocqueville perfectly described when he visited America in 1831 & wrote "I should have loved freedom, I believe, @ all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it."

 

Today the statists have battered the liberty principles of our founding into submission to the point that over 108 million Americans receive some form of federal welfare – the Cato Institute has identified 126 welfare programs.  Only 102 million Americans work full time year round so the proportion of the population getting welfare from the federal government exceeds those getting full time checks & over 9 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force since BO took office – source Dick Morris, Power Grab, Pages 48 & 56.  The average middle class family receives over $7,000 more in benefits than they pay in federal taxes each year – source Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation.  The Pew Research Center reports that more than 65% of millenials (people born between 1981 & 2005) support reducing military spending in order to preserve spending on these welfare programs – source Mark Levin, Plunder & Deceit, Page 157.

 

The unsustainability of the trends shown on the above graphs is explained by the above statistics – namely, welfare & government dependence have overtaken wealth creation & American's love of liberty that De Tocqueville described above – all prosperity comes from unleashing the free human intellect & that is what we are losing.

 

Ayn Rand said she wrote about men like John Galt & Howard Roark because she knew they existed.  Well, we obviously need them now & they can't appear soon enough to suit me.

 

Reference Posts:  

 

The Ryan Speakership & Z Standing For Zero

 

Boehner Elected Speaker - Not A Good Start For The New Congress

 

Mindset Change - Dependency To Freedom - Republicans Have The Chance To Make It Happen

  FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 705 (Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)
      H R 2029      YEA-AND-NAY      18-Dec-2015      9:49 AM
      QUESTION:  On Concurring in Senate Amdt with Amdt Specified in Section 3(a) of H.Res. 566
      BILL TITLE: Making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes

	YEAS	NAYS	PRES	NV
REPUBLICAN	150	95		1
DEMOCRATIC	166	18		4
INDEPENDENT
TOTALS	316	113		5

 

---- NAYS    113 ---

 

Abraham Amash Amodei Babin Barletta Becerra Black Blackburn Blum Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Buck Byrne Carney Clawson (FL) Crawford DeSantis DesJarlais Doggett Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Ellison Emmer (MN) Farenthold Fleming Forbes Fortenberry Franks (AZ) Gallego Garrett Gibbs Gohmert Goodlatte Gosar Gowdy Graves (LA) Griffith

Grijalva Guinta Gutiérrez Hardy Harris Heck (NV) Hice, Jody B. Holding Hudson Huelskamp Hultgren Hunter Hurt (VA) Jenkins (KS) Johnson (GA) Johnson, Sam Jones Jordan Kelly (PA) King (IA) Labrador LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Lance Latta Lieu, Ted Lofgren Long Lummis Marino Massie McClintock McDermott McKinley Meadows Meehan Miller (FL)

Mooney (WV) Mulvaney Palmer Perry Pocan Polis Pompeo Posey Ratcliffe Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rohrabacher Rothfus Salmon Sanford Schrader Schweikert Shuster Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (TX) Stutzman Takano Thompson (MS) Tipton Walker Waters, Maxine Webster (FL) Welch Westerman Whitfield Williams Wittman Yoho Young (IA) Young (IN)

 

---- NOT VOTING    5 ---

 

Cuellar Fincher

Johnson, E. B. Kennedy

Kildee

 

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 114^th Congress - 1^st Session

Vote Summary

Question: On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendments to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2029 )
Vote Number:	339	Vote Date:	December 18, 2015, 11:31 AM
Required For Majority:	1/2	Vote Result:	Motion Agreed to
Measure Number:	H.R. 2029 (Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 )
Measure Title:	A bill making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes.

Vote Counts:	YEAs	65
	NAYs	33
	Not Voting	2

 

NAYs ---33
Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Cassidy (R-LA) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Daines (R-MT) Enzi (R-WY) Ernst (R-IA) Fischer (R-NE) Flake (R-AZ)	Grassley (R-IA) Lee (R-UT) Manchin (D-WV) Markey (D-MA) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) Merkley (D-OR) Moran (R-KS) Paul (R-KY) Portman (R-OH) Risch (R-ID)	Sanders (I-VT) Sasse (R-NE) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Sullivan (R-AK) Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) Wyden (D-OR)

Not Voting - 2
Boxer (D-CA)	Rubio (R-FL)