Check me on this.
The Republicans won the Presidency, the Senate and the House and 2/3rds of the state governorships. We elected a charismatic leader who boldly spoke truth to power and explicitly laid out what he would do to reverse the big government syndrome of higher taxes, crippling regulations, increasing bureaucracies, and more and more handouts. The Left was in disarray with aging unattractive candidates, and hard-to-imagine-more-obnoxious legislative leaders than Schumer and Pelosi.
Correct?
Yet the Left continues to win and to advance their agenda. On May 1, we were told that an agreement had been reached upon an omnibus spending bill which gives the Left what they want and ignores the promises made by the Republicans. MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY - THE SHIP OF STATE IS SINKING.
Think that assessment is too harsh? Read it and weep. The bill DOES
- increase the debt by $1 trillion
- provide a total of $30 billion non-defense programs in additional funding over the previously set sequester level - continue Obamacare subsidies - include $295 million to cover a Medicaid funding shortfall in Puerto Rico - increase monies to agencies which were to be eliminated [Corporation for Public Broadcasting [and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities]
- preserve funding for boondoggle bureaucracies [e.g. the EPA’s bloated budget continues at a 99% level. To fully appreciate how disastrous the situation is at the EPA, see Archive 21.] https://www.ireallymissreagan.com/single-post/2016/12/05/ISSUE-21
The bill DOES NOT - provide the $30 billion for military spending [reducing it by a third]
- cut the $18 billion in non defense spending specified by the President
- reduce the funding for wasteful bureaucracies - allow for the wall
- defund sanctuary cities
- do away with the subsidy for Planned Parenthood, the country's foremost abortion provider.
Last Fall, when a short-term spending bill was passed funding the government through April, we were told that a bill that would keep the campaign promises would be forthcoming when the Republicans took the presidency in 2017. Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio): … now it looks like we are not going to do that. I think that's a problem… We make this job too complicated. Our job is to do what we told voters we were going to do…I’m disappointed. We’ll see how it plays out this week, but I think you’re going to see conservatives have some real concerns with this legislation. [Emphasis added.]
On TV, I watched an Administration spin that this is a win, because now the Republicans would not be blamed for a Government shutdown!
Let’s put that one to rest. In 2013, there was a shutdown and it was blamed on the Republicans yet the Republicans went on to win big-time in the 2014 elections!
https://newrepublic.com/article/120138/2014-election-results-heres-why-democrats-lost-senate-gop http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-gops-government-shutdown-dilemma-11841 https://spectator.org/60939_ted-cruz-wins-shutdown-worked/
Here the shutdown would have been a result of the Democrats not allowing the President to fulfill the promises for which the voters elected him. Who has the better case for blame?
[BTW, government shutdowns are vastly overrated.]
We also were told that passing a proper bill would be impossible with the Senate’s 60 vote requirement. But that would be true in September as well. And we know there are ways to cope with the 60 vote bar. Use the nuclear option as was done with that the Supreme Court nomination.
Remember Joe Biden's words:
This is the first time every single solitary decision has required 60 senators. [Emphasis added.] http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2011/11/constitution-check-is-the-60-vote-norm-paralyzing-the-senate/ Of course, Biden conveniently ignored the Democrats' use of the 60 vote rule when it benefited them, but he was correct on the basic point. The Constitution specifies a super-majority for only a limited list of Senate actions. [E.g., ratification of treaties, overriding Presidential vetoes, approving constitutional amendments.] Both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison indicated in the Federalist Papers a clear belief in majority rule, with Hamilton stating that “the fundamental maxim of republican government . . . requires that the sense of the majority should prevail.” [Emphasis added.] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/22/joe-biden/biden-says-every-senate-decision-now-requires-60-v/ https://journals.law.stanford.edu/stanford-law-policy-review/online/how-52-senators-made-60-51.
And we have a persuasive President capable of going directly to the voters. Can you not see President Trump appearing at the White House briefing and using Ronald Reagan’s great line:
Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
Then, laying out the agenda which won him the Presidency, bypassing the mass media propagandists and the RINOs, the President made Reagan’s 1980’s promise to “Make America Great Again” the theme for the 2016 election. President Trump is well able to implement RR’s advice: When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/ronaldreag383264.html
The Administration also stated that any GOP healthcare bill will continue Obamacare’s prohibition on denying coverage due to preexisting medical conditions. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/20/conservative-republicans-reportedly-pleased-with-changes-to-health-care-proposal.html
This cartoonist satirized that idea:
The President must re-think that. The earlier attempt at a bill … was ill-conceived and ignored opportunities to enhance market competition and reduce premium costs. The most glaring error was the preservation of Obamacare's mandate that preexisting conditions must be covered. People can refuse to pay premiums for insurance coverage for years. Then, when a catastrophic illness like cancer strikes them, they can obtain coverage simply by paying a 30% higher premium for just one year. Who wouldn’t go for that deal? It drives up costs which must be paid for by higher premiums for responsible taxpayers. It rewards the grasshopper at the expense of the ant. Aesop got that but the GOP did not. [Emphasis added.] https://www.ireallymissreagan.com/single-post/2017/03/26/ISSUE-31
If the prohibition is kept, then the penalty ought to be an increase in premium costs of 50% for at least 5 years. An analysis in the American Thinker noted:
… you can't have people wait until they get sick and expect to be covered. It is like wanting to buy fire insurance while your house is burning up. The idea is to reward individual responsibility. [Emphasis added.] http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/04/republicans_talk_keeping_health_care_promises.html#ixzz4etjaln2j
But, as for the Omnibus Spending Bill, President Trump can and must VETO it!
There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what is morally right.
Ronald Reagan