Republicans, Democrats pass massive $1.85-trillion federal spending bill
Just how low can the GOP go?
In what one commentator called a “stunning betrayal” of conservative values—it was more than that, it was a stunning betrayal of America itself—the U.S. Senate has passed a $1.85-trillion omnibus spending bill that will fund the federal government and tie the hands of the House GOP majority through next September, and torment Americans for decades.
The vote was 68-29, with 18 Republican senators—including our old liberal pals Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, and Mitch McConnell—voting for the legislation. Of course, McConnell (or should we call him McVichy) is the reason the legislation survived in the first place.
Conservatives are livid, and were even before the vote but after McConnell’s collaboration. In a December 21 open letter to GOP senators prior to the vote, 31 Republican House members—led by Rep. Chip Toy of Texas and including Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Mayra Flores of Texas, and other conservatives—pointed out that the bill would deny the incoming House majority any leverage to enact crucial policy changes for at least nine months, especially regarding border security:
As expected, the bill increases funding for President Biden’s bureaucrats and wholly fails to impose meaningful checks on his radical agenda. It increases funding for an FBI that is colluding with big tech to suppress free speech, labeling parents as domestic terrorists, and targeting pro-life Americans. It gives more money to the NIH, CDC, FDA, and other agencies that are actively conspiring with big healthcare to our detriment.
In addition, the lawmakers wrote, it further empowers EPA and other agencies to wage war on reliable US energy and provides another $45 billion for Ukraine. As such, the lawmakers wrote, they would take action against any Republican senator voting for the bill:
The released legislative text confirmed this omnibus is an assault on the American people. As such, we reiterate that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for its passage—including the Republican leader. We will oppose any rule, any consent request, suspension voice vote, or roll call vote of any such Senate bill, and will otherwise do everything in our power to thwart even the smallest legislative and policy efforts of those senators.
One can argue with the wisdom of such a threat but not with the sentiment behind it. In the end, though, even self-crowned speaker Kevin McCarthy was appalled by the proposed deal and said he agreed with the letter:
Except no need to whip—when I’m Speaker, their bills will be dead on arrival in the House if this nearly $2T monstrosity is allowed to move forward over our objections and the will of the American people.
In the Senate, Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson also opposed the bill, calling it an abomination:
There is no way anyone had time to read all 4,155 pages, much less comprehend how the massive deficit spending and major policy elements will negatively impact Americans. This takes Washington dysfunction and cynicism to an entirely new level. We were unable to amend the bill to eliminate at least $11 billion in earmarks or preserve Title 42 as the only restriction to Biden’s open border policy.
Johnson said Congress was mortgaging the nation’s children’s future and that a majority of the members of Congress couldn’t care less. Indeed, on Thursday, the Senate defeated his proposed amendments to eliminate $9.8 billion in earmarks and to restrict federally funded transportation of illegal immigrants. The earmarks will flow to states that Johnson says are sitting on almost $400 billion in surpluses.
Now the vote is absolutely telling, or stunning—use whatever adjective you wish—for it exposes the myth of Republican conservatism. And more than just out its nonconservatism, it exposes the party’s tether to rank globalism. It is impossible to argue that it is not the Republican Party but just McConnell and 17 cronies. It was the Republican Senate that re-elected McConnell as minority leader, and it is the Republican Party that has enabled foundational big-government, anti-people legislation, now and in the past. Time and again, Republicans have had opportunities to at least slow or stall the growth of government; time and again, they have refused to do so and instead have entered into alliances with progressives.
This particular legislation does even more. It paints for the American public and voters the GOP’s priorities; it shows them who is co-responsible for taking a wrecking ball to the economy; and it tells the world who is winking in support of the woke agenda that this bill will help weave into the fabric of American culture and education. Let’s take a look.