JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
- 63,590
- 16,767
- 2,220
When you surrender the power of the purse -- and that's the primary power the House of Representatives has. Not a penny of money can be spent in this country by this government without the House of representatives authorizing it. Obama can spend all he wants, but if the House doesn't give him the mechanism, he can't spend any of it. But the Republicans squandered that. They gave up the power of the purse. The reason they did that is because for some inexplicable reason, they are literally paranoid and cared to death of even being accused of doing something that would shut down the government.
So to avoid even the accusation that they were going to or would ever even think of shutting down the government, they signaled that whatever Obama wanted to spend, he would get, because they figured that had less damage to them politically than the allegation that they were shutting down the government. So, very simply, ever since the Republican Party became the party of keeping the government open at all costs, we get bills like this. There's simply no stopping the Democrats. There's no mechanism. Every constitutional mechanism found in the power of the purse, Separation of Powers, the Republican Party years ago gave it away, in total fear of the media.
Now, there's also a factor that needs to be mentioned, too, and that is that many Republican donors want every bit of this money spent, and they have donated voluminously to key Republicans in order to get the money spent. So it's not all Republican fears. It's not all Republican caving. A lot of it is Republican fealty and loyalty to some of their donors. Some people today looking at this, and this is 2,009 pages....
Jeff Sessions, senator from Alabama, is calling this a betrayal, fully funding the Obama immigration agenda, the climate change agenda, increasing foreign workers. He said, "This is why Trump is now triumphing here and probably will win. The voters have come to believe that their own party's elites are not only uninterested in defending their interests, but -- as with this legislation and fast tracking the president's international trade deal -- Republican voters would not be wrong to conclude that their own Republican leaders are hostile to them, just as Democrat leaders are hostile to Republican voters."
And as Sessions points out, "This legislation represents a further disenfranchisement of the American voter." Clearly! In the last two midterm elections, the American electorate has stood up and loudly stated, 'No. We don't want this. Stop this." It didn't matter. It's so bad that over at Slate.com they're making excuses for Paul Ryan. I think in some places in the left-wing media, they can't believe the scope of the betrayal. They're feeling a little guilty at how easy this has been. They're feeling a little guilty here. I'm joking, of course. But one of the Salon.com columnists said, "Hey, you know, you guys need to cut Ryan some slack. He was left with a huge mess and not much time to fix it."
Isn't that what they always said with Boehner? "He was left with a huge mess"? Isn't that what they always say about Obama? "He was left with a huge mess. Man, it was much worse than he even knew. Nobody told him the truth." It seems to be a constant refrain and excuse. "According to Sessions, the American people elected Republicans to the majority in Congress in 2014 as a rejection of the Obama administration's immigration policies," and any number of other things. "'That loyalty has been repaid with betrayal,' he said. ....
Sessions added, 'As feared, the effect is to fund the president’s entire immigration agenda.'"
GOP Sells America Down the River - The Rush Limbaugh Show
Once again, the GOP leadership in Congress proves it is only concerned with the profits of their corporate donors and the rank and file conservatives that support them can go to hell as far as they are concerned.
WE NEED A NEW PARTY!!!!!
So to avoid even the accusation that they were going to or would ever even think of shutting down the government, they signaled that whatever Obama wanted to spend, he would get, because they figured that had less damage to them politically than the allegation that they were shutting down the government. So, very simply, ever since the Republican Party became the party of keeping the government open at all costs, we get bills like this. There's simply no stopping the Democrats. There's no mechanism. Every constitutional mechanism found in the power of the purse, Separation of Powers, the Republican Party years ago gave it away, in total fear of the media.
Now, there's also a factor that needs to be mentioned, too, and that is that many Republican donors want every bit of this money spent, and they have donated voluminously to key Republicans in order to get the money spent. So it's not all Republican fears. It's not all Republican caving. A lot of it is Republican fealty and loyalty to some of their donors. Some people today looking at this, and this is 2,009 pages....
Jeff Sessions, senator from Alabama, is calling this a betrayal, fully funding the Obama immigration agenda, the climate change agenda, increasing foreign workers. He said, "This is why Trump is now triumphing here and probably will win. The voters have come to believe that their own party's elites are not only uninterested in defending their interests, but -- as with this legislation and fast tracking the president's international trade deal -- Republican voters would not be wrong to conclude that their own Republican leaders are hostile to them, just as Democrat leaders are hostile to Republican voters."
And as Sessions points out, "This legislation represents a further disenfranchisement of the American voter." Clearly! In the last two midterm elections, the American electorate has stood up and loudly stated, 'No. We don't want this. Stop this." It didn't matter. It's so bad that over at Slate.com they're making excuses for Paul Ryan. I think in some places in the left-wing media, they can't believe the scope of the betrayal. They're feeling a little guilty at how easy this has been. They're feeling a little guilty here. I'm joking, of course. But one of the Salon.com columnists said, "Hey, you know, you guys need to cut Ryan some slack. He was left with a huge mess and not much time to fix it."
Isn't that what they always said with Boehner? "He was left with a huge mess"? Isn't that what they always say about Obama? "He was left with a huge mess. Man, it was much worse than he even knew. Nobody told him the truth." It seems to be a constant refrain and excuse. "According to Sessions, the American people elected Republicans to the majority in Congress in 2014 as a rejection of the Obama administration's immigration policies," and any number of other things. "'That loyalty has been repaid with betrayal,' he said. ....
Sessions added, 'As feared, the effect is to fund the president’s entire immigration agenda.'"
GOP Sells America Down the River - The Rush Limbaugh Show
Once again, the GOP leadership in Congress proves it is only concerned with the profits of their corporate donors and the rank and file conservatives that support them can go to hell as far as they are concerned.
WE NEED A NEW PARTY!!!!!
