The approval rating for Congress is already at rock bottom. But just when you think these cretins can't get any worse, that they couldn't possibly pass a more stupid bill than anything they've already done...Well, they do.
The 5,500-page COVID relief & omnibus bill passed by Congress earlier this week contains hundreds of carve-outs for special interests and outrageous pork barrel spending. It shovels money to wealthy people and organizations that don't deserve it, and provides generous funding for programs and initiatives in corrupt places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Here are a few absurd examples of how our elected "leaders" have decided to allocate money we don't have: grants for smart toilets and to study lizards walking on treadmills; funding for think tanks in Sri Lanka; art classes for Kenyans; $10 million for "gender programs" and book clubs in Pakistan.
I don't have exact dollar amounts for everything, but whether each line item was $1 or $10 million is irrelevant. The United States is $27 TRILLION in debt (up from just $5 trillion 20 years ago). Our unfunded liabilities are well north of $100 trillion. We have millions of Americans whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by COVID-19 lockdowns. Yet despite these harsh realities, the morons in D.C. are only offering $600 stimulus checks, and frittering away billions on stupid programs in OTHER COUNTRIES.
Again, my analogy to put things in simple terms: Our politicians' foolishness is like the head of a household who has $30K of credit card debt, no money in the bank, overdue bills, AND is unemployed, yet decides to use additional credit cards to buy jackets and gift cards for homeless people out on the street, donate to charities, purchase fine wine and Filet Mignon, and take his family on a trip to Disney World.... you get my drift: Reckless, insane, and just plain stupid.
President Trump has threatened to veto the COVID-19 relief bill, and said he wants Americans to receive $2,000 stimulus checks ($4K per couple). In the spirit of "politics makes for strange bedfellows," Nancy Pelosi, AOC and Bernie Sanders are cheering him on.
On Wednesday, the Trumpster vetoed the $740 billion defense policy bill, in part because it kept in place social media companies' liability shield (Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996), and also because he objects to renaming military bases that were named after Confederate generals. The veto is likely to be overridden.
Orange Julius left town for a holiday break at Mar-a-Lago, leaving Congress in an unsettled, uncertain state with Christmas bearing down on us. It has been a fitting week of craziness wrapping up a chaotic and difficult year.
Who knows how this will play out? But one thing Republicans must beware of is that failure to increase the size of the checks going out to struggling Americans may well cost them both Senate elections in Georgia on Jan. 5.
Although polls show the two GOP incumbent senators leading, alleged miserly and mean-spirited behavior by GOP members of Congress could be a godsend for the campaigns of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Throw in a little bit of "finessing" via loosely regulated paper ballots, and the Dems just may walk away with this thing. (This could be the manna from heaven for Ossoff and Warnock, just as COVID-19 was for Joe Biden's campaign.)
At this point, it doesn't make much difference whether the U.S. finishes 2020 $27 trillion or $30 trillion in the hole. But what could make a difference -- a tragic, catastrophic difference -- is handing over Senate control to the Democrats. Because once that happens, there will be no turning back. Democrats will remove all checks and balances and lock in corrupt, one-party rule for good. At that point, liberty will die a quick death; free speech and the Second Amendment will be shredded, and I shudder to ponder what the future will hold.
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