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On November 8, the American people fired House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, so why are some Senate Republicans giving her another spending bill to cram with wasteful spending and woke policies?
Last night, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby - the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees spending – told reporters that Congress could be working on the upcoming government funding bill until Christmas.
Current funding runs out on December 16, and Shelby, Vermont Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy, and House and Senate leadership have all been working together to pass a big "omnibus" spending bill, meaning it’s several spending bills combined into one big package.
It’s the same playbook every year: they "negotiate" behind closed doors for a few months before springing a massive disaster of a spending spree on us at the last minute, then Democrats go on TV to say Republicans are trying to shut down the government by not going along with everything they want.
Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020. Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
My question is: why are Republicans going along with any spending above the absolute minimum it takes to keep the government from shutting down?
An entirely new Congress will be sworn in on January 3, with a Republican House and a Republican speaker. In the business world, where I come from, they take away the company credit card after you get fired. But Senate Republican leadership seems to be fine with letting Pelosi keep running up the bill.
Those who have something to gain from passing a massive spending bill packed with earmarks and pork projects will imply that we have a choice between their spending spree or shutting the government down. This is not true. We can keep spending at baseline levels.
In fact, we do it most of the time, through "continuing resolutions," or CRs. Democrats did it for months last year.
Keeping the government from shutting down is as easy as passing one of these CRs for just two weeks.
Normally, I vote against this kind of extension because I believe it’s kicking the can down the road, but when the other option is giving Pelosi another crack at Americans’ checkbooks, the choice is clear.
The last omnibus spending bill, passed in March, was a $1.5 trillion inflation bomb. While the next omnibus spending bill is still being negotiated, we know that it will contain billions in earmarks: payoffs and pet projects that representatives and senators put in spending bills for their states, which can be used to secure passage for these big inflation-accelerating bills.
I’m against earmarks because I think they are a corrupt tool used to buy votes with the American people’s money. It is not a coincidence that the ten senators who got the most money from earmarks in the last omnibus bill were all members of the Appropriations Committee.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., acknowledges applause as his wife Marcelle Pomerleau looks on at the conclusion of a news conference at the Vermont State House to announce he would not seek re-election. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm) (AP)
When I tour all 92 counties in Indiana every year, Hoosiers always tell me how frustrated they are with the out-of-control spending in D.C. and how it hurts their family finances.
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When Hoosiers ask me if there’s anything Republicans and Democrats agree on in Washington, I tell them: Sadly, yes, they agree on spending money we don’t have.
But in case you were wondering which party’s interests are best served by a big omnibus spending bill, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor to plead with the chamber to pass an omnibus bill and avoid a "stopgap" spending measure like the one I’m proposing.
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Why? Because he wants more of the Biden agenda. Fortunately, the American people don’t.
When Hoosiers ask me if there’s anything Republicans and Democrats agree on in Washington, I tell them: Sadly, yes, they agree on spending money we don’t have.
That’s why we fired Pelosi and will have a Republican House in just a few weeks.
I’m calling on all Senate Republicans to put their country before their pet projects and deny Pelosi the severance package she wants most: another wasteful spending bill full of earmarks and liberal priorities.