Posted on 03/25/2018 9:08:24 PM PDT by Kaslin
Remember the Kobayashi Maru scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? Sometimes, you end up with no good options. Donald Trump just had that happen to him with the omnibus abomination, though dont be fooled by the passive voice he deserves some blame for letting it come to this. The absolutely essential military spending was wrapped in a fat suit of glistening, rancid pork, and the congressional rats had already abandoned ship and fled out of town when it was dumped on his desk. So he had a stark choice. Trump could sign it, and enrage his base but ensure our military could prepare for the wars looming on the horizon. Or he could veto it, and launch a government shutdown with about 0% of succeeding in getting a significantly better deal.
Trump chose the least worst of two bad options, and I, for one, refuse to lose my Schiff over it.
This was a last minute congressional jam-down of a swamp-generated monstrosity, and Trump deserves a slice of the blame for not seeing it coming. He evidently failed to ensure that his priorities and preferences were included as this sausage was being made, and suddenly the whole thing dropped on him (and us) seemingly out of nowhere and became a thing overnight. Except it wasnt overnight. This train had been coming down the tracks for three months; the Congressional weasels succeeded in sneaking it in right before they ditched town. Trump is liable for letting himself be put in that position, but the GOP leadership is responsible for putting him there.
Now, the people who hate Trump anyway many of whom would have squeed with squishy glee had Presidents Jeb! or Foamy Marco signed the bill were delighted for a chance to scream BETRAYAL TURNCOAT CUCK! about this choice. For many of them, this is just another chance to try to tear apart the Republican coalition that rejected them many still dream of someday getting a slot in a Ben Sasse administration. But none of them offered a game plan for an alternative.
What was the alternative?
Step One: Veto the Bill
Step Two: ?
Step Three: Congress Passes Conservative Spending Bill We All Love
If anyone can explain Step Two to me, Id sure appreciate it. After all, thats kind of the key step, and no one seems to have a good answer for what it might have consisted of. The simple fact is that while the GOP has a majority, conservatives do not. Step Two cant be Wishing or Wanting or Waving the Magic Wand. If you think a government shutdown caused by Trumps veto would result in a better outcome, well, that requires some explanation. Id be interested to see a citation to a governmental shutdown that the shutter downer won. There isnt one; people like us love government shutdowns because we think the government sucks, but the rest of America doesnt.
It just doesnt. I dont want that to be the truth, and I dont like it, but thats how it is. We are not yet an unassailable majority, and the United States is not yet the dictatorship the left desires, so we cannot just decree that our wishes become reality. We have to compromise and make deals. And its annoying as hell.
This is a over-compromise and a bad deal. This bill is not what Trump promised and not what we voted for. The base is mad. Furious. And it has a right to be.
Weve been mad at the saps in the GOP Congressional Caucus forever, and weve slowly but surely been turning out the simps and the squishes. There are many more to go. But a lot of the anger, fueled by giddy libs and eager Fredocons, is directed at President Trump. Some of it is justified he let himself get pushed into the corner and he needs to reach out and get some advisors who actually agree with his program. But a lot of the bases fury is overblown.
Its absolutely understandable in fact, its inevitable that Trump supporters are going to be ticked off. Weve been lied to and betrayed for decades, and anything that even hints at a continuation of that pattern spins us up to Rage Level 11. But the fact is that this was a screw-up that led to him being faced with two bad choices, and we need to see clearly what happened. We werent betrayed. Its not over. And Trump has totally lost my support is exactly what your enemies want you to say.
Dont say what your enemies want you to say.
This was a bump in the road, as road that includes Justice Gorsuch, defeating ISIS, Keystone, regulatory rollback, tax cuts and many other conservative achievements. Our enemies would love for us to throw that all away because we got a case of the madz. But that would be stupid.
Theres another spending fight coming. Trump says he wont sign another flaming pile of garbage like this. After the reaction he got the other day, its likely hell keep his word. He should demand that he receive the next bill in final form 30 days before the deadline no more 30 minutes to read 2,200 pages nonsense. This will give real conservative leaders a chance to disinfect it with sunlight, like Senator Rand Paul did highlighting the flotsam and jetsam in the last one.
Finally, Mitch McConnell needs to earn the bases lost confidence by getting the GOP to toss out the filibuster rule and start passing our priorities because if these hacks blow the Senate majority (and they absolutely could) Chuckie Schumer will do that the first day anyway. Oh, and it would be really good for morale to get Ric Grennell and the other hung-up nominees confirmed. If McConnell has to change the rules to outflank Democrat obstruction, okay.
What do the rest of us do? Not quit. Get up, brush off, and get ready to fight. Tighten the hell up and jump back in the game. If you cant take a hit, if you cant stand to encounter an obstacle, if youre giving up everything because something goes wrong, youre not really committed to recovering your country and your own freedom. This is going to be hard. This is going to take time, a lot of it. Rome wasnt built in a day, and draining the swamp will not be done in a day either. We are going to have more days like Omnibust Friday in the future, lots of them. Thats how it goes. But also remember that we will have days like November 8, 2016, where liberals are spread out before us, sobbing as their hideous libfascist dreams die before their eyes.
And those days make it all worthwhile.
Crucial operations are underway which would have been disrupted or aborted by a gov shutdown. A veto would have been snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
It’s a chunk of money, not a budget.
Nothing Trump does will make a damn bit of difference if we lose this war with the globalist vampires. What good is a wall if there’s tyranny on both sides?
Voters have known for years about treacherous turtle McConnell and back stab Ryan, and their numerous acts of betrayal, siding with democrats-yet they return them to office, election after election.
POTUS did what had to be done to re build the military ASAP, which he has made his number one priority, exactly as he has already explained.
Here is Section 7058 (d):
(d) Repurposed Funds.--(1) Of the unobligated balances available
under the heading ``Bilateral Economic Assistance'' in title IX of the
Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
Appropriations Act, 2015 (division J of Public Law 113-235)--
(A) $35,000,000 shall be made available for the Emergency
Reserve Fund established pursuant to section 7058(c)(1) of the
Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
Appropriations Act, 2017 (division J of Public Law 115-31):
Provided, That such funds may only be made available if the
USAID Administrator determines and reports to the Committees on
Appropriations that it is in the national interest to respond
to an emerging health threat that poses severe threats to human health;
(B) $100,000,000 shall be for programs to accelerate the
capabilities of targeted countries to prevent, detect, and
respond to infectious disease outbreaks; and
(C) $10,000,000 shall be made available for support of a
multi-partner trust fund or other multilateral efforts to
assist communities in Haiti affected by cholera resulting from
the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti: Provided,
That prior to the obligation of such funds, the Secretary of
State shall ensure that mechanisms are in place for monitoring,
oversight, and control of such funds: Provided further, That
such funds shall be subject to prior consultation with, and the
regular notification procedures of, the Committees on Appropriations.
(2) Funds made available pursuant to this subsection are in
addition to funds otherwise made available for such purposes.
(3) Funds made available pursuant to this subsection under the
headings ``Global Health Programs'' and ``International Disaster
Assistance'' may be transferred to, and merged with, funds made
available under such headings: Provided, That such transfer authority
is in addition to any other transfer authority provided by law.
(4) The amounts repurposed under this subsection are designated by
the Congress as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control
Act of 1985 and shall be available only if the President subsequently
so designates all such amounts and transmits such designations to the
Congress.
(A) EMERGENCY APPROPRIATIONS; OVERSEAS CONTIN- GENCY OPERATIONS/GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM.If, for any fiscal year, appropriations for discretionary accounts are enacted that
(i) the Congress designates as emergency requirements
in statute on an account by account basis and
the President subsequently so designates, or
(ii) the Congress designates for Overseas Contingency
Operations/Global War on Terrorism in statute
on an account by account basis and the President subsequently
so designates, the adjustment shall be the total of such appropriations in
discretionary accounts designated as emergency requirements
or for Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War
on Terrorism, as applicable.
DIVISION JDEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2017
Title IDepartment of State and Related Agency
Title IIUnited States Agency for International Development
Title IIIBilateral Economic Assistance
Title IVInternational Security Assistance
Title VMultilateral Assistance
Title VIExport and Investment Assistance
Title VIIGeneral Provisions
Title VIIIOverseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism
DIVISION KTRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2017
Title IDepartment of Transportation
Title IIDepartment of Housing and Urban Development
Title IIIRelated Agencies
Title IVGeneral ProvisionsThis Act
Or it could have referred ti the table of contents:
DIVISION K--DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2018
Title I--Department of State and Related Agency
Title II--United States Agency for International Development
Title III--Bilateral Economic Assistance
Title IV--International Security Assistance
Title V--Multilateral Assistance
Title VI--Export and Investment Assistance
Title VII--General Provisions
Title VIII--Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism
Which looks like the Division J and K are interchangeable.
My belief is that this whole cryptic letter was to support drug interdiction in President Trump's declared Opioid Crisis, noting that Global Terror is funded by illicit drugs.
If it is intended for the Border Wall I will be ecstatic, but that amount of money is not enough.
Every other lefty cause too. If the headlines said big wins for healthcare, then it’s more insurer and bank money... cause you know darn well it isn’t money for sick people.
There is a lil bank every half mile in the small town I live in.. merging bankers and insurers was a big fail.
Missed them.. can you post them?
Can we still kill unborn future American citizens (students) with impunity?
Where; on a government website; can we find it?
Of course this is not the only thing that everyone is yelling, screaming, throwing Trump under the bus,Brietbarting Trump for,its only part of the equation.
The bigger part is the question of what is the difference between a Spending Bill/CR and a budget that we haven't had in many years now? How did the obma/jarret regime rule over us for eight long ones with only CR's?And why.?what do they know about using EO's and the flexibility of spending bills vs. budget bills that we don't seem to know?
Some think that the CR/spending bill gives the potus more flexibility on what to spend, where or not at all. This opinion was out there big time yesterday.I used it myself on numerous sites.My take, if it was good enough for the communist to use for eight years why can't our side use it as well?
Problem is everyone you talk to has a slightly different take on what is budgetary and what is a simple complex 1.3 trillion spending bill. Is it confined to the rules of a budget created years ago or is it a stand alone spending bill that has all kinds of flexibility in it depending on the skillfulness of those administering it?
If this question is not answered on talk radio today it will linger until someone does.
The Most obvious candidates to answer such a question is a Mark Levin or a Laura Ingraham. There are others. Hannity has a half dozen lawyers on his show who could all take a stab at it as well.
I sure as hell would like a good take on what the differences are so this issue can either clean up what Trump signed up for or not.
Either way I still support our President 100% and always will. IMHO, he was between a rock and a hard place and made the best out of what was a bad,very bad situation.
Just like United Fund money SWEARS that none of YOUR money will go to pay for abortions.
YOUR money goes to crippled children and someone ELSES money funds PP!
It's all smoke, mirrors and mis-direction.
This battle is far from over I think your post is premature.If it turns out there is a lot of flexibility in spending the 1.3 trillion allocated in the bill and some of the money does not and may not be spent at all, than the downside is a lot less than many assume it is.
How do we know this?
Brilliant post and I totally agree. But I would still like to see someone with an advanced law degree in the constitution or budgetary law, if there is such an individual, to assess what is going on and how the money can actually be spent.I think you have it down.Add in a few Presidential EO’s to what you said and I think the President is bulletproof.But we still need clarification.
Has any of that money been spent yet?
Great post and I agree but would still like a legal opinion by the right scholar.
We get to do the whole thing over again in six months.
Kurt,
Confucius says
“When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger”
No doubt our President was snookered, betrayed, flogged and crucified.
Yet even after this defeat, should he move on and actually show even more determination in MEGA in spite of the obstacles.... ACTUALLY SUCCEEDING, how great would that be? To see the impossible become possible is for more electrifying. It can only be labeled “Spiritual”
So - joins the Dems - they can use you like they’re using Hogg....
The libs are winning by dividing us...lets not let this happen. Weve been thru so much.
“I ain’t gonna”
Motto of conservative purists.
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