Omnibus Bill: Don’t Get Mad, Get Even

There is a general consensus that a dozen or so U.S. senators who are mostly aligned with the America First movement have screwed up royally by allowing the 4,100-plus-page omnibus $1.7-trillion budget to be adopted — and they know it.

None of them was willing to play hardball on behalf of their constituents or on behalf of the country. None apparently recognized that a nay vote was not sufficient or had the fortitude or common sense to filibuster or read the entire document into the Congressional Record in order to slow its progress into the new session of Congress. How else could the American people or even members of Congress know the exact specifics of runaway government spending and what mysteries are hidden within this largely sequestered omnibus?

There is also general consensus that about twenty U.S. senators who are part of the McConnell Club (AKA RINOs) also screwed up royally by repeatedly joining the Democrats for assorted omnibus votes as the country’s indebtedness rose to an unconscionable $31 trillion (not counting Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid). Meanwhile, the Uniparty have yet to discover exactly how severely their constituents and rest of the country have been alienated.

Predominately a blueprint for the Democrat/Marxist agenda through 2023, its malicious details are being revealed daily elsewhere, so a better focus here would be to understand who allowed this travesty to come into being and how. It is no secret that the federal government’s fiscal year begins on September 30, and at that time, Senate leadership was not prepared to present a draft budget, thereby delaying ninety days to complete its work. At ninety days, Congress had still not completed its work, and the 2023 budget was still not ready for congressional review and approval until the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

In what can only be described as an unwelcome and unprecedented achievement of such phenomenal largesse to be so utterly blind and oblivious to the tribulations and suffering of the American public, the resulting omnibus spending package was contrived by a shady cast of perpetrators without anyone having seen its details, literally in the dark of night. The majority of senators who remained outside the loop had scant knowledge of the full extent of what evil lurks within the document.

Hence, within four days of its deadline, the mammoth 2023 budget was presented with little to no opportunity for a thorough fiscal or policy analysis. Clearly, the Senate leadership’s game plan was known in advance to deliberately put senators in a bind: either vote four days before Christmas without knowing the omnibus’s contents, or shut down the government. Unfortunately, the minority of Republicans who originally resisted ultimately allowed themselves to be manipulated by McConnell et al. without formulating their own opposing strategy. A hint for those who want to be in the U.S. Senate: if you are getting into the pit with alligators, it would be advisable to know how to wrestle alligators.

A dispassionate look at the facts reveals that the first Senate vote indicative of serious trouble brewing was on the December 20 Motion to Proceed, which was required to begin discussion of the omnibus. Twenty-one Republicans voted with the Democrats (70-25), who vote in lockstep, and a review of that list easily identifies those senators who might be defined as traitors to the American people.

Tracking the votes will show that the majority of those who voted aye continued to vote with the Democrats leading up to omnibus final passage (68-29) on December 22. As you review these votes, note that retiring on January 3 are Senators Roy Blunt (Missouri), Richard Burr (North Carolina), Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma), Rob Portman (Ohio), and Richard Shelby (Alabama), all of whom voted against the best interest of the American people on their way out the door.

Even after a series of comparatively insignificant pro forma amendments, which had no realistic chance of adoption, went down to defeat or were sabotaged by the Democrats, Senate approval of the $1.85-trillion omnibus, in effect, undermined the House’s ability to pressure the FBI or the DOJ or the DHS, as it removed all incentive for their cooperation by providing them with their 2023 funding upfront.

The point is that few of these alleged Republicans appear ready for prime time or ready for the mantle of true constitutional leadership to save the country from the clutches of the wicked World Economic Forum. They have all allowed archenemies McConnell and Schumer to dominate, to prove who is in charge…and that members of the U.S. Senate are merely infantile dullards unable to handle the responsibility of adulthood.

In terms of how this disaster occurred, these senators repeatedly vote with the Democrats, especially during the omnibus debate, which spanned four days. And most importantly, these Senators are all up for re-election in 2024: Senators Mitt Romney (Utah), Mike Rounds (South Dakota), Todd Young (Indiana), and Roger Wicker (Mississippi), with Senators John Barrasso (Wyoming) and Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) who repeatedly “took a walk” by not voting when their votes were essential.

In addition to the above, repeat violators who are not up for re-election, yet who voted with the Democrats on omnibus amendments, include Senators John Boozman (Arkansas), Shelly M. Capito (West Virginia), Susan Collins (Maine), John Cornyn (Texas), Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), Jerry Moran (Kansas), John Thune (South Dakota), and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky).

These fifteen senators consistently, almost on every occasion, regardless of the issue, vote with the Democrats and are rarely considered reliable Republican votes. The awareness that these fifteen senators may consistently not be representing their constituents should become a catalyst for citizens to become more engaged to hold these senators accountable for their votes, to demand transparency for how they function outside the glare of public awareness.

Given the dire state of the country, it is essential for American citizens not to let anger or frustration stifle a creative response, but to fully participate and check it out for yourself by following your senators on the Senate floor and monitoring live Senate debate and votes at U.S. Senate: Votes.

If your senator is not representing what you assumed he was representing and especially if that senator is looking at 2024 re-election, it may be time to become involved in soliciting an alternative candidate who better represents your values and the welfare of the country. Considering whether any members of the state Legislature, county commission, or city or town council, or other prominent Republicans, or even someone with potential who may not yet have achieved public attention might be a fruitful search to find a candidate with the necessary mojo to win an election.

A good question for each senator would be why a government shutdown would have been more egregious than adopting this fiscal travesty of staggering mathematical miscalculations with substantial totalitarian policy shifts since monthly federal entitlements would not suffer.

Renee Parsons served on the once prestigious ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and as president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, staff in the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, an environmental lobbyist for Friends of the Earth, and a staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington. She can be found at [email protected].

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