December 20 – Well, the numbers are out. The full omnibus spending bill totaling $1.7 trillion was released early this morning and includes supplemental aid for Ukraine, $858 billion in defense spending and, interestingly, a TikTok ban on government-issued devices.
The entire thing is more than 4,000 pages long.
Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky made the point that it’s ridiculous to expect people to comb through all of that information in one or two days and then be asked to take a vote on it.
It also includes $800 billion in non-defense discretionary spending and that’s where all the goodies are hidden.
Reporting has suggested the Senate could actually vote for this thing as early as today – the same day it’s released.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “This represents a dramatic increase from spending over last year. The defense spending, that’s an increase of over 10 percent over last year. Non-discretionary spending, six percent over last year. No cuts to anything. This just keeps adding to the deficit, to the debt and it just keeps going. There’s no end in sight of this spending.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “In the defense bill, they gave more than what Biden asked for and yet we’re drowning in inflation. My bills are going up like crazy. I’m canceling everything. I’m trying to get down to living as cheaply as I can to get by and I’m only one of how many millions of Americans doing the same thing and yet they’re going out and spending my money and putting a 4,400 page bill out with only hours to look at it and I’m supposed to just sit back and take it.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Barkdoll said, “Electoral Reform Act is buried into this bill as well. There’s apparently billions throughout this bill for all sorts of pet projects around the country. Assuming they pass this in the next day or two, as the days go on, we’ll learn about all sorts of crazy programs that are in this spending package.”
Congressman John Joyce said, “We have a responsibility. You sent me to Washington to be a fiscal, responsible steward of the taxpayer dollars and this omnibus does not have that in there. It was primarily written by Senator Shelby from Alabama, who is on his way out. He will not go home to constituents who he has to face in upcoming elections. I think that was an irresponsible move.”
The full bill was released around 3 a.m.
Joyce said, “It’s reckless spending and it is woke agendas. It is nothing that I can embrace. Every indication that I have, I will be a hard no on this reckless spending that will affect each and every one of my constituents.”
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM asked, “Doesn’t it speak volumes, doesn’t it say everything, it gets released on 3 a.m. on the 20th, a mere few days before Christmas. Are these people just expecting that we’re not going to need to have the American public pay attention? We’ll leave it out at 3 o’clock in the morning, it’ll be 4,000 pages. We’ll just shove it down everybody’s throat and nobody will be paying attention. Isn’t that enough for all of you to vote a hard no on this in the first place?”
“Absolutely,” Joyce confirmed. “You’re not going to shove something down this legislator’s throat. I’m going to carefully look at this, but every paragraph that I’ve read, there are exceptions to fiscal responsibility. There are exceptions to the constitutional obligation that I have to you and to all of your listeners as voters. Doing this at the last minute, I could have an interest in a short term funding of the government until we take back power in January, but this is pushing it until next September. This does not show really the way the constitution has set up funding the government. That has to start in the House and the Senate has not given us the opportunity to do that. It’s going to be until the end of the week until we have this vote. My vote right now is that I am a hard no. There’s no indication that this omnibus is a success for the American citizen.”
Jansen added, “There’s so many legislative agendas that were shoved into this thing. This is what people hate. They hate the ruse of using something like this, the panic of the last minute before the break. Oh, the government’s going to shut down. We have to pass this, but then they stuff all these little goodies in there, both in terms of earmarks and they said of the 10 Senators getting the highest amount of earmarks, eight of them are Republicans. It’s obvious there’s some bribing and enticing Republicans for their vote. It’s completely irresponsible. We know it’s affecting inflation. What I don’t understand is why would you take the power of the purse away from a Republican House for most of next year when that’s what people voted for them to have – that power back.”
Funding of the government, according to the constitution, originates in the House of Representatives.
Joyce said, “The Senate has rammed this reckless spending omnibus at the last minute to allow us to be able to fund the government. There’s no reason to do this. I’m willing to stay here over Christmas, over New Year’s to come up with an appropriate piece of legislation. I’m not seeing it of what was released in the wee hours of the morning today. I am a hard no on this omnibus.”
Where is the money coming from for this $1.7 trillion package?
Barkdoll said, “The government is floating massive amounts of debt in the form of bonds and notes and bills, largely bonds, and a lot of that is bought by foreign countries. China and Saudi Arabia are two of the biggest ones. We just keep floating more debt on the world markets that these foreign countries keep buying up to keep this thing going.”
Ryan asked, “They could call the note and crush us, right?”
Barkdoll said, “This has been a fear for years. On a given day, take China or Saudi Arabia. They could go onto the market and just liquidate their entire portfolio of US debt instruments, which some economists think could really cause a crisis, but that has not happened. It gives those countries a tremendous amount of leverage, the more US debt they keep buying.”
Ryan asked, “Do you think this thing does pass? Does it pass or does it not pass? We’ve got phone number of people that we’re trying to encourage our listeners to make a phone call to. Does it get to Joe Biden’s desk?”
Joyce said, “Unfortunately, the House right now is ruled by the Democrats. I see that it would pass the House. That’s unfortunate. My prayer is that these Democrats have an awakening of what this reckless spending will do to inflation, what this will do to their constituents and not that they just want to rush home. Their responsibility is 365 days a year and doing this with a holiday pressed up against us, that’s not a reason to cast the wrong vote. Unfortunately, I do feel that this might pass the House, but it will not pass the House with my vote.”
Jansen said, “The terrible truth is you can’t stop it because the Democrats do control the House, so it is only the Senators, the Republican Senators, that could possibly stop it and we’re hearing that as many as 18 are going to go along with this, which is just horrendous.”
Joyce said, “My responsibility is not to leadership. My responsibility is to constituents who sent me to Washington to do the right thing. From me looking at the phones, we have more than 30 calls already and they’re telling me that the first 12 are already vote no, vote no, vote no. My responsibility is to the constituents who sent me here to be fiscally responsible. I encourage people, let your voice be heard.” To contact the Senators who need to hear VOTE NO from you, click here: https://tristatealert.com/make-the-call-and-say-no-to-washingtons-omnibus-spending-bill/
