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 don’t 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 wasn’t 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, I’d sure appreciate it. After all, that’s 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 can’t be “Wishing” or “Wanting” or “Waving the Magic Wand.” If you think a government shutdown caused by Trump’s veto would result in a better outcome, well, that requires some explanation. I’d be interested to see a citation to a governmental shutdown that the shutter downer won. There isn’t one; people like us love government shutdowns because we think the government sucks, but the rest of America doesn’t.
It just doesn’t. I don’t want that to be the truth, and I don’t like it, but that’s 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 it’s 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.
We’ve been mad at the saps in the GOP Congressional Caucus forever, and we’ve 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 base’s fury is overblown.
It’s absolutely understandable – in fact, it’s inevitable – that Trump supporters are going to be ticked off. We’ve 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 weren’t “betrayed.” It’s not “over.” And “Trump has totally lost my support” is exactly what your enemies want you to say.
Don’t 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.
There’s another spending fight coming. Trump says he won’t sign another flaming pile of garbage like this. After the reaction he got the other day, it’s likely he’ll 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 base’s 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 can’t take a hit, if you can’t stand to encounter an obstacle, if you’re giving up everything because something goes wrong, you’re 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 wasn’t 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. That’s 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.
BUMP!
Good grief!
Piffle
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...
bump
Too many conservatives want to cut and run when something doesn't go exactly the way they want. I envy the Dems in this regard: they stand with their leaders through the tough times.
.
Maybe Trump sees prices spiking for the next year or two due to tariffs and all this spending may hit roadblocks. Maybe he signed relying on his business instincts.
They did the same thing in the 2006 midterm election when they stayed home and allowed the rats to take over and our side lost. They just never learn.
He probably did.
Amen!
Trump is about to have a very high-level negotiation/meeting with Kim Jong-un that could result in anything from war to denuclearization. He’s also just about to go after Iran. He needs a fully-funded, capable military.
If he walked into that room with Kim Jong-un and they both know our military is weakened due to internal squabbling over money, that significantly impacts Trump’s bargaining position, and it weakens him against Iran.
There’s more at stake here than some deficit spending.
Also, look at some other points:
1) This budget, while admittedly terrible, simply maintains the status quo and adds badly-needed military spending. So literally the only thing that’s changing is that the military spending is finally stabilizing for a couple of years for the first time since our IDIOT congressmen agreed to sequestration.
2) There’s enough money in the budget for Trump to turn loose the Army Corps of Engineers on the Wall. He can spend a fair chunk of Defense money on that project using DoD assets, and there’s nothing Congress can do to hamstring it.
3) While this hasn’t been confirmed as the course-of-action Trump is taking, there’s some real wiggle room language in this bill as far as spending money on garbage like Planned Parenthood. Words like “should” are sprinkled all throughout. If it’s not totally directed, then Trump can take steps not to spend the money and just return it to the Treasury. Will he do that? I don’t know, but it looks possible.
This is annoying. Trump should’ve been more aggressive against Congress. Paul and McConnell have a LOT to answer for (why TF do we keep electing Republicans when they give the Dem agenda FULL FUNDING 100% OF THE TIME?!). It is NOT, however, the end of the world as we know it.
The alternative to President Trump was infinitely worse, and IMO, might have been a point of no return for our country. I say that with no hyperbole intended, merely as a statement of opinion. We likely won't know if it's right for another generation or so.
That Pres. Trump has achieved a goodly number of his goals, and has had a pretty darn good first 14 months is merely icing on the cake.
Lots of Chicken Littles and "I told you that Trump wasn't Pure enough" and "I'll just take my ball and go back to my bunker!" types on FR lately. I wonder how many are Freepers and how many are just trolls.
I am on my rep's email list and she always sends me a report on Friday for the week. In her last report she send me a report for the reasons she voted against the bill. Here is what she wrote.
This week, Congress passed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, but I did not vote for this bill. We have Republicans in the House, the Senate, and the White House. It's time we start to show some fiscal restraint. Our national debt is growing out of control, and we can't continue to pass these massive spending bills & expect future generations to deal with our negligence.
There were some good things included in the bill, such as funds to fight the opioid epidemic and to expand broadband in rural America, as well as a much-needed pay increase for military service members. Unfortunately, there were far too many provisions included -- like funding for grants that go to Planned Parenthood -- that you do not want and you do not want to pay for. So many of you have called me and asked me to vote no. I hear you, and I agree with you, which is why I could not support this spending bill.
I want to be very clear with you about one thing. I will always stand with our military, and will do everything I can to ensure they have the resources and the funding that they need to protect us. Our service men and women are the true heroes of America. They sacrifice everything to keep our homeland safe, and they and their families deserve our constant respect and support. As you may recall, I voted yes when the budget passed in the House last month, because it increased funding for our military, which had been significantly underfunded in recent years. While part of this omnibus bill did provide funding for our military, there were too many bad provisions in the bill, and I could not in good conscience vote yes for it. I am committed to continuing to fight for our military, service members, and their families. You are our top priority, and while we need to drastically cut government spending, our military should never be on the chopping block.
Washington has a spending problem. Our deficits are increasing, and our debt is at an unsustainable level. We cannot continue to max out our nation’s credit card and expect future generations to deal with the consequences. While some in Washington think we can continue to kick this can down the road, I think we have a moral obligation to enact real spending reform. There are government programs in that 2,200 page spending bill that you may not even know exist, and you should not be on the hook to fund them all. Washington’s spending problem is much broader than just this bill. Mandatory spending has exploded from just 30% of government spending in the 1980s to an alarming 70% today. We are leaving our children and grandchildren with a debt burden they will never be able to pay.
Ending The Opioid Epidemic
The opioid epidemic has been tearing apart families and taking lives for over ten years. Any death due to an opioid overdose is a tragedy, but one death every fifteen minutes is a national emergency. President Trump was correct in labeling this as “the crisis next door,” as opioids have touched every state and every community across the country. We must act immediately to do everything we can to stop this epidemic. As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I introduced CARA 2.0 with Senator Portman. As the lead sponsor of this bipartisan House bill, I am working diligently to get it through Congress and on President Trump’s desk. CARA 2.0 will allocate resources to our first responders and to the states, but also includes provisions for opioid overdose prevention.
Where; on a government website; can we find it?
I can dig out the link for you, if you need it.
Immigration has been my number one issue at Free Republic since 2005.
From memory...
1.2 million Green Cards were issued in 2016.
After a quick search, the final number for Green Cards in 2017 does not appear to be out yet.
Usually, there are 100,000 to 300,000 more “legal” immigrants per year who are accepted under more than a dozen other categories.
Trump’s been in office for 14 months.
I gave him the benefit of doubt.
1.4 million is probably too low.
Excellent.
So he should have vetoed and then the veto would have been overturned and he would be very weakened politically.
Or the veto would not be overturned and the Congresscreeps would have sent him another s*** sandwich after a long time. Maybe whittling down the mil $.
You’re being ultra childish and so freaking pure that you are wanting defeat. “Trump isn’t PERFECT so I for one welcome President Burnie Sanders/Kamala Harris/fill in your fave commiepuke!”
Idiot.
Bulls***.
You are a liar. It is not a pattern at all.
And Trump was forced into a box canyon by EVIL people in Congress. EVIL PEOPLE.
What you mean is, you hope you can convince people it’s becoming a pattern.
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