Trump’s Poison Pen: The 2020 Omnibus Bill

Submitted by David E.

Guest Post by Eric Buss

IMPEACHMENT!

(noun) Definition:

Distraction. Diversionary tactic of subterfuge meant to enhance partisanship while having no real impact on the day to day affairs of governance.

This current administration, the Democrat House Majority and Republican Senate Majority have developed the angst necessary for this scheme to work. They have built up tensions, drawn the reluctant back in to the fold and created a false dichotomy in the minds of “their people.” It is false because from the perspective of life, liberty and property, both sides have revealed only the desire to take these things giving nothing in return.

While we ponder who is less detrimental to our own interests; the familiar “Lesser of Two Evils” trope, we are only enabling them to take more from others. At some point, on some distant horizon, I genuinely hope the people begin to recognize what is detrimental to some may in fact be detrimental to all of US. We have become far too casual in our approach to elections. Many have come to look at them as if politicians were draft picks, a race horse to bet on or the boxer we favor to win the fight. It is certainly presented to us that way but I have a serious question. Where is the fight?

Our champions have taken up their positions on their respective teams. The lines are drawn. Insults are exchanged. The antagonism reaches fever pitch and…nothing happens. There is no real fight. There is no victory to be had. Nothing becomes of any of it. Rhetoric billows out from behind a smoke screen that merely conceals inaction.

If we operated from anything beyond a superficial acceptance of what they tell us is true, how they market and package bills, how they demonize the opposition or how they claim their victories, we might arrive at a conclusion far different from the narrative foisted on us.

For almost 4 years the Republican Party, led by the unapologetic and resilient President Donald Trump, have decried the numerous investigations launched against him. It is fake news. It is a witch hunt. He has taken on the burden no one else was willing to shoulder.

He has been in endless, single-handed combat with the Deep State on their home field…you know…”The Swamp.” He has taken on the media, the Democrats and the Socialist Agenda. With his tactical genius and near flawless strategy he has found the most effective way to defeat them all. He takes every corrupt charge against him and repeats it. He doubles down on deception. He obstructs investigation after investigation. He calls for help from foreign leaders. He demands loyalty from his own appointees (even encouraging them to break the law). He literally gives them the ammunition to bring him down.

This is where it gets interesting. Having been handed numerous means by which they can legally destroy the Trump presidency, the Democrats use the most ambiguous and, some could argue, most benign charges and lob them at him. Even now, the Articles of Impeachment are sitting on Speaker Pelosi’s desk. Trump has given her an arsenal of artillery, drones, tanks and bombers at her disposal and yet she lays out the 22 caliber revolver.

She should be facing charges of neglect for the way she is botching this entire operation. For those who bothered to read the Mueller Report, 10 Articles of Impeachment could have been filed. Her response to the opportunity (should she have wanted to take it):

“I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/pelosi-opposes-impeaching-trump-divisive-hes-worth/story%3fid=61614010

Her own Party was baffled by her inaction. Former Republican Representative Justin Amash (I-MI) even appealed to her to proceed with Impeachment: “If [Pelosi] believes that President Trump committed impeachable offenses, and if she believes as she said that he should be in prison—she said that—then I think it’s insane not to move forward with impeachment,” https://www.wzzm13.com/mobile/article/news/politics/national-politics/amash-pelosi-impeachment/69-1a8979fa-a773-43f6-aa83-d5e93e0814b2

So why, with the immense pressure of her own caucus and an appeal by neutral and historically Constitutional Congressman Amash, would she balk at Impeachment in such a moment when the facts favored her doing just that? Why did she wait for a softball like the current articles (1. Abuse of Power, 2. Obstruction of Congress)? To be sure, partisanship will be the deciding factor in how the Impeachment process goes but would it not have also played out the same under earlier proceedings when they were called for in May? There seems to be a great deal of reluctance for her to back up her rhetoric in spite of multiple Constitutional requirements being met. I have a theory…

While everyone is Googling the word Impeachment and drawing the false conclusion that the president is no longer in office (yes, there are more than a few among the uninformed that believe that), the opposing teams in DC, the good guys and the bad guys, the champions of Conservatism and Progressivism, the Mortal Enemies of American ideology sat down to carve out a greater portion of our substance. While the people were letting the historic dust settle on the House vote for Trump to be tried in a Senate controlled by a majority of his cheerleaders, they found time to lay down their verbal swords to vote on another record breaking spending bill.

This bill is so massive that it had to be split into multiple packages…gifts, if you will…to conceal that Donald Trump has signed the two largest spending packages in United States History (how very conservative of him)? The 2100 page megalith of Federal cooperation was presented in its final form just 24 hours before it was to be voted on. Now that he passed the bill, we can find out what is in it.

• Opioid Epidemic – $3.8 Billion for the Department of Health to continue the Federal war on your pain medication. This does not include the $518 million (increased by $31 million from last year) dedicated to the Department of Justice.
• Smoking Age Increase – Just as insidious as the Opioid Crisis, tobacco is being dealt with by increasing the age to buy cigarettes to 21yrs of age. What many…even a majority…believe is that tobacco regulations should be addressed at the state level. I suppose I, being a smoker, should be happy that the Federal government has headed off this agenda by creating an unwanted, unneeded and unnecessary national law. It will no longer need to be debated here in Indiana. One of our own Democrat state legislators (aptly named Charlie Brown) proposed this measure last year. Now they can get to the serious business of raising the state taxes on cigarette sales again. As of now, I’m pretty sure this bicameral increase is responsible for about ⅓ of all Indiana programs. Mind you we have a surplus of tax revenue here in the Hoosier state, but I digress.
• Environmental Agencies – Hoax or not, the climate change crowd has some serious pull in D.C. Never ones to pass on an opportunity to capitalize on angst, an increased claim on our hard-earned dollars has been included in the spending package. The EPA has been given $9 billion (a $240 million increase). The Bureau of Land Management receives a 2% increase. Land and Water Conversation (think California policy on steroids) has a monumental budget of nearly $500 million. Speaking of California, the Federal government is now supplementing failed wildfire tactics by adding $2.5 billion in wildfire disaster relief (Federal Government Fire Insurance) to the $3.8 billion already allocated for fighting Wildfires. This brings me to another agency getting a boost in tax revenue. The US Forest Service will become the recipients of an additional 2% apart from funds for fire prevention. So all of those agencies preventing us from taking preventative measures against wildfires will make bank on their inability to prevent them.
• Renewable Energy – The Department of Energy is to receive a record-breaking allotment of almost $3 billion to explore efficient ways of producing renewable energy. In the meantime, everyone from the Dept.of Indian Affairs to the State Department and from NASA to the Dept. of Transportation is being paid additional funds to purchase the less-efficient options available to us now, you know, to show they truly want to make a difference as well as legitimize the bunk science of Climate Change.
• Muh Roads – The Dept. of Transportation will enjoy a robust $86.1 billion to continue to build those roads…and (takes a deep breath), provides Amtrak an extra $58 million over last year for a total of $2 billion. The majority of these expenditures will be used to enhance the Northeast Corridor (it’s for the Beltway). It also provides an installment on a larger project of replacing the Amtrak fleet over the next few years. The BUILD/TIGER gets a lion’s share. $1 billion is confiscated from citizens by the D.O.T. and then reinvested in the citizens’ own communities for local infrastructure, transit systems and congested areas. Don’t worry, it creates jobs.
• Housing – When government policies create homelessness who better to solve the crisis than those who paid off the banks when defaults occur. Why not entrust HUD with building new homes and renovating existing ones for low income housing? The intent of this bill is to pay the difference for people who cannot afford the luxury of government housing by supplementing up to $10 billion dollars to get them into these holes. The good news is the government is paying itself to get these unfortunate souls into “the projects” by making up the difference of what they cannot pay.
• Research and Development – The National Institute of Health, you know the ones who tell us sugar is bad but saccharin is good, butter is bad but margarine is good and vegetarian diets are good but red meat is bad, are getting a sizeable stipend. They can instruct you to avoid a substance that you should not consume and then reverse themselves. For those who gamble, the sure money is in playing both sides. When they contradict previous research, it is based on a new study that finds the original study was wrong. Well, they get money to keep studying to ensure you are in possession of their latest position. They get $41.5 billion (a $2.5 billion dollar increase over last year). It pays to fail. NASA – When Obama shifted the directive of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from space exploration to a form of Muslim outreach, the policy proved untenable. They found a new use for NASA, Global Climate Change research. Now all of NASA’s programs will be geared toward gathering intel against nature’s war on hipsters. They will be given $22.6 billion ($1.1 billion over the 2019 budget).
• Federal Law Enforcement – The Federal government cannot declare war on gun violence without funding their efforts. Fear not…the Dept. of Justice has looted the American taxpayers’ grandchildren to the tune of $22.5 billion set aside for the FBI, ATF, US Marshall Service, DEA, all of which received a 3% increase over last year’s budget. Of course all of that law enforcement would be pointless without a 3% increase for the Bureau of Prisons to accommodate the additional criminals based on new draconian laws in need of enforcement. The Byrne/JAG program will be the recipients of $550 million ($125 million more than last year) to supplement local and state courts through a variety of programs. Hey, someone has to pay the legal fees of public defenders. You don’t expect the states to do it do you? In addition, the First Step Act (Criminal Justice Reform) is now to receive funding after being passed last year. $75 million is to be used for the purpose of adjusting sentences, assessment of prisoners’ conduct and reducing sentences of inmates based on time served. While it is sorely obvious that the criminal justice industry is in need of repair, it should be an issue left up to states (Mandatory minimum sentences are a good place to start followed by re-evaluation of the laws for which people are incarcerated). Nationalizing an initiative to review prison rolls and overturn judges’ rulings seems redundant at best. At worst (and more likely its purpose), it erodes state sovereignty and while wrapping this infringement in a warm and fuzzy blanket of good intentions. However, if states had pursued their own course of reforms, the Federal level would never have had the opportunity to put a foot in the door (let this be a warning to states slow to change archaic practice and policy).
• Gun Reform – Last but not least, no legislative session would be complete without an attempt (failed or successful) to further regulate firearms. While this abomination of Federal spending is meant merely to keep the government alive another year or so, it takes several measured steps to kill off gun ownership. Neatly folded into this 2100 page bill are a few lines with ominous implications. Not only are the ATF and FBI given greater resources to combat “gun violence” (read here gun ownership), the CDC and NIH are getting in on that action. They are now able to gather data on gun violence as if it were a national health crisis or an epidemic. $25 million has been set aside for their new mission of creating stats to advocate for stricter gun control initiatives (and yes, the Democrats are salivating about this merger between health and firearms). The ATF (the militant branch of gun control) receives nearly $1 billion to crack down on criminal firearm possession (up $50 million from last year). This increase seems to correlate with Trump’s criminalization of bump stock ownership. Their mandate is pretty vague: ‘find “illegal guns” and take them.’ The FBI will confiscate $131 million to run instant background checks to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. I may be wrong but this has been going on for decades. It really costs the FBI $131 million dollars for staff to field those calls every time a firearm is purchased?

So what about this Democrat field day indicates that any form of negotiation took place? Where was the push back? Where was the fight for fiscal restraint? It does not exist. By a vote of 89 – 8 (with 3 abstaining), this bill passed the Republican controlled Senate. It went on to be signed by the Republican president. Not only does it give the Democrats what they wanted on nearly every item, it rejected almost all of the Republican amendments and agenda items.

I would like to believe awareness is sinking into the minds of even the most die hard of Republican membership, what they sold you and what they mailed you are not even the same product. You may believe that a border wall is the solution to immigration (though I tend to disagree), you do not have one. They just keep leaving the wall as an issue for the next major election. You may believe that Obamacare needs to be eliminated but they have kept it in place. Yeah, the individual mandate may be going away but you are still paying it in taxes because the uninsurable will be subsidized by the government. The 2nd Amendment is not a hill to die on for the GOP. They have endorsed Red Flag laws, the president’s own bump stock ban and now they have signed onto the gun control agenda with this spending package which merges firearm data with healthcare statistics.

They had control of the House and the Senate when the president signed the $1.3 Trillion omnibus bill in 2018, the largest on record until that time. They still control the Senate and the Executive branch, yet they cannot help but pass the new $1.4 Trillion record breaking spending bill. Did they do it to sustain the government’s viability by capping the bill at current spending levels? No. Nearly every agency got in an increase in their budget. Limiting government no longer seems to be an imperative for the GOP. Expanding government in only the areas important to them is not even a point to be made since this bill rubber stamps everything the Democrats wanted.

If I did not know any better, I would say the president realizes he has a short time in office. In that time, he intends to get as much of the progressive agenda (which is where his loyalty has always resided) accomplished while the GOP is still with him. The alternative is that he is the worst negotiator in the history of politics and your confidence is misplaced.

“There are a lot of things I’m unhappy about in this bill. There are a lot of things that we shouldn’t have had in this bill, but we were in a sense forced if we want to build our military…I said to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again.”

~ President Donald Trump (upon signing a $1.3 Trillion Omnibus Bill – March 23, 2018)

Pretty bad when Rep.Ted Lieu (D-CA and current contender for the Democrat nomination in 2020) agreed with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH and current human shield for Trump’s legacy) and encouraged Trump to veto the first omnibus with these words on Twitter:

“Taken together, the government funding bills guarantee that critical priorities — investing in the military, ensuring Americans are more prosperous and healthy, delivering border security, engaging in criminal justice reform, and defending life – will be met in the upcoming year…”

~ President Donald Trump (upon signing a $1.4 Trillion Omnibus bill – December 20, 2019)

Was he wrong then or is he wrong now? Sounds to me like he has made peace with The Swamp. He even increased the water table by about 3%. This whole thing is oddly reminiscent of the George H.W. Bush (a progressive Republican in his own rite) quote: “Read my lips, no new taxes,” that sealed his one term presidency.

With increases in gun control, illegal immigration, Federal spending, size and scope of government, validation of the climate change agenda, Federal law enforcement funding (like the “corrupt FBI” that has targeted the president from the beginning), environmentalist policies solidified and now healthcare in your gun safe, I’m really asking what it is about this president that gives so many Republicans hope when the only thing that has decreased under his administration are the number of Conservatives in the GOP and Liberty, itself. Thank God for state primaries…oh, wait.

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