By Donald Jeffries
The recent bipartisan government funding deal exemplified all that continues to be wrong in Washington, D.C. Despite controlling the House, enough Republicans, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, sided with the Democrats to make it impossible for members of the House Freedom Caucus to stop it.
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House Freedom Caucus members have been demanding spending cuts and tougher border security be included in the two House funding packages. Johnson threw them under the bus by agreeing to a series of “minibus” deals, that would provide funding for government agencies through September.
Each year, Republicans are cast in the role of a collective Ebeneezer Scrooge, anxious to cut benefits for those who need them. They are invariably pressured to sign whatever terrible bill the Democrats want to avoid the dreaded government shutdown.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) tweeted in protest:
This omnibus spending bill (divided into two ‘minibus’ bills to hide it) will spend $1.65 trillion ($30 billion more than [Nancy] Pelosi), is littered with earmarks, fails to secure the border, and punts almost every GOP policy win—thus, will fund most of Biden’s lawlessness and tyranny.
Roy went on to add:
Mike’s a good friend and he’s dealing with a tough, you know, hand. We’ll keep working and trying to move the ball forward. But, you know, look, this is not the call I would have made and I think everybody knows that.
The Republicans are reluctant to acknowledge that Johnson is proving to be no better than Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the previous speaker who was ousted in a historic move. Rep. Jim Jordan, seemingly a more genuine anti-establishment type, was defeated in his effort to become speaker. Rep. Matt Gaetz, perhaps the most hardline member of the Freedom Caucus, supported both Jordan and Johnson for speaker, and sang Johnson’s praises. Too many Republicans are phony conservatives, and will never accept anything but phony conservatives as their leadership. The party machinery is rigged against MAGA candidates, too, making it difficult to challenge incumbents who provide no real alternative to the “woke” Democrats.
To quote “The Hill”:
[Speaker Johnson] “can either forge deals with Democrats to keep the government open, or he can side with the hardliners and demand steep cuts in spending, which would likely lead to a shutdown. Time and time again, Johnson has chosen the former.
And Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) tweeted: “The Swamp’s first spending package is out. All the policy wins that were surrendered during backroom negotiations.”
Johnson’s caving in to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden and company will result in continued funding for the Department of Justice’s politicized legal efforts against Donald Trump. Not only will there be no “border security,” which is often a meaningless term that doesn’t address the issue, but, needless to say, the many millions of illegal immigrants already in the country will not be deported.
The Republicans should have some idea about the deal they’re agreeing to. If Biden is praising it for its “priorities,” and is happy it will “reject deep cuts” to favored Democratic Party government programs,then it is a bad deal. Schumer, meanwhile, termed it “a good deal for Democrats,” and said the bill will have “no significant impact” on “current projects and activities.”
Biden elaborated, saying, “It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring.” He also boasted that it was “free of any extreme policies”—like closing the border and deporting illegal immigrants, for instance.
While capitulating to the Dems, Johnson remained steadfast in his support of Israel. He has declared, “The calls for a ceasefire are outrageous.” On Twitter, he stated, “Any government worker that walks off the job to protest U.S. support for our ally Israel is ignoring their responsibility and abusing the trust of taxpayers. They deserve to be fired.”
So, the speaker of the House thinks that it is a government employee’s “responsibility” to blindly support Israel? To protest the killings of women and children is “abusing the trust of taxpayers?” That’s quite the “alternative” to the Democrats. “MAGA Mike” Johnson has agreed to a $1.6 trillion spending bill, and there appear to be no significant concessions to conservatives in there.
There is no point in Republicans controlling Congress when they simply roll over for whatever demands the Democrats have. Voters, especially Republican voters, have shown in every poll that the border is a top issue with them. Nothing is being done to address that in the spending bill. The Biden administration has permitted some 10-15 million migrants—mostly males of prime fighting age—to cross a totally unguarded border. They have flown unknown numbers of them to locations across the country, and even housed them in fancy hotels. Nothing will change until genuine conservatives replace phony conservatives in the key Republican leadership positions.
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