Dismissing dark portents of a federal debt growing by nearly $1 trillion every quarter, disregarding the sinister clouds of price increases, job and productivity losses, and opportunity costs that smother the US economy because of all the previous US budgets going back decades, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and their cronies in Congress late Thursday and Friday passed their “Omnibus” – the glorious “second half” of their US budget, after passing on March 8 their stop-gap “first half.”
You likely won’t be surprised to know that both the so-called “discretionary” and “non-discretionary” halves of these were filled with enough pork to fill billions of slaughterhouses. But you might be surprised to discover that many of those who voted for this poison actually have the gall to claim they are doing their “constitutional duty.”
“The House approved a $1.2-trillion package of spending bills Friday just a few hours before funding for some key federal agencies was set to expire, a long-overdue action nearly six months into the budget year that will push any threats of a government shutdown to the fall.
The bill passed by a vote of 286 to 134 and now moves to the Senate, where leadership hoped for a final vote later Friday. More than 70% of the money would go to defense.”
Would it? Really?
Can anyone, with a straight face, actually claim that the US government has been engaged in “defense” of us, our rights, or the US Constitution for the past 70 years? In February, both houses passed $61 billion to deliver weapons and other “aid” to Ukraine (evidently the fifty-first state), and $14 billion to send similar lucre to Israel (the fifty-second state), in complete contravention of the US Constitution. And this budget sees more foreign shell-outs - so what, exactly, are these “sworn Constitution defenders” defending?
Taking a longer-term philosophical and logical tack here: how can any sane US civilian adjudge as “defense of his/her rights” a political machine that can, at any time, demand more of his or her property and wealth while fatuously claiming it’s for HIS or HER safety?
Some people correctly call that what it is. Government is a protection racket.
But with serious looks, and self-congratulating rhetoric, these thieving neo-mafia collectivists arrogantly claim they are doing us a service, and that we who want to be left alone are the bad guys and opponents of “progress.”
Opponents of their bald-faced lawlessness are the ones who put “Americans at risk.”
Sure.
At least there were some souls inside those “august halls” of filth and pork who actually called out some of the more insane “earmarks” the majorities in both houses passed.
Rand Paul (R-KY), Friday on the Senate floor noted how little time the members were given to read the “budget”:
“When did we get it? At 2:32 AM on Thursday! And now it’s ‘Rush-rush-rush! We gotta get that money out the door!’”
What lovely items will this debt-adding insanity fund? We don’t know them all, because the budget was over 1,000 pages long, but Rand gave us a good start:
“$2 million for the construction of a kelp and shellfish nursery in Maine… There’s already a $15 BILLION private market for kelp!”
Rand also noted a $1.5 million earmark to expand the “video gaming” industry in New York.
That would be the video gaming industry, one of the biggest forms of entertainment in the world, with total market 2023 revenue nearing $400 BILLION.
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And he cited a federal gift of $388,000 for Columbia University, one of the most prosperous and expensive schools on earth, with an endowment listed last June at $13.6 BILLION.
Rand also noted:
“We have a 34, going on 35, trillion-dollar debt. The biggest payment now, in our budget, within about a year, is going to be the interest on that.”
So, what could be better than seeing the majority of his colleagues in the Senate and the House add to that?
Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AR) offered additional coloring to that, citing just a few of the graft-destinations that traditional, moral people might find offensive, and noting the politicians who pushed for them:
- Sen. Reed (D-RI), Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI), $1,808,000 – Women and Infants Hospital, RI (HRSA) – Provides late-term abortions.
- Sen. Shaheen (D-NH), $650,000 – Dartmouth Hitchcock Nashua, NH (HRSA) – Routinely provides late-term abortions.
- Sen. Gillibrand (D-NY), $146,000 – Apicha Community Health Center, NY (HRSA) LGBTQ/family services to youth. Website notes that they offer “services related to your pregnancy choices.”
- Sen. Markey (D-MA), $850,000 – LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc, MA (ACF) – LGBTQ services for illegal immigrants, free drug needle exchange.
- Sen. Booker (D-NJ), $400,000 -- Garden State Equality Education Fund, NJ (Education Innovation and Improvement) – LGBTQ youth advocacy.
- Sen. Heinrich (D-NM), $780,000 – Amador Health Center, NM (HRSA) – LGBTQ services.
- Sen. Murray (D-WA), $706,000 -- Entre Hermanos, WA (HRSA) --- LGBTQ asylum and illegal immigration services advertised, drag brunch advertised.
- Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT), $156,000 – Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, CT (HRSA) – LGBTQ services.
And the list goes on, and on. Check out the link to see…
The RINO-Dem majority even killed amendments that would have stopped Biden from using tax cash to facilitate migrant flights around the US and to stop CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies) being used by the government to replace cash.
But one of the key takeaways I hope to share is that these high-profile earmarks and offensive handouts should not be seen in isolation, as if other, less immediately offensive recipients of the graft can be given a pass.
Even the so-called "non-discretionary" spending is composed of a motley assortment of mostly unconstitutional federal programs funded through the immorality of taxation and its evil partner, inflation-feeding borrowing that eventually will be paid with more taxation and more borrowing.
Tis a false dichotomy they offer, when the DC crowd – in either big political party – tell us there is “discretionary” and “non-discretionary” spending, because most of the things they claim they "MUST" fund are not sanctioned by their US Constitution.
But, and this is key, even if they and enough state politicians ganged-up to amend the Constitution and “allow” most of these things, that would not make it morally justified for the government to forcefully expropriate any of my neighbors cash.
This new “budget” is a financial, fiscal, constitutional disaster. But, moreover, it sheds light on the moral bankruptcy that lies at the heart of all assumptions that politicians can take my neighbor’s earnings – for any so-called “reason.”If I cannot morally steal from you or threaten you to pay me what you earn, my admittance into a gang called “Congress” or my “vote” for it does not make the coercion and theft any more moral.
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