Opinion

Twelve Republican senators and nine Republican House members joined with Democrats to pass next year’s 4,000 page 1.7 trillion dollar omnibus spending bill. This vote was particularly egregious because the Republicans would have been in charge of the budget with a majority in the House if passage could have been delayed for a couple of weeks. The budget could have then been considerably reduced through rejection of pork barrel spending. Democrats could have passed their bill without Republican help in the House this December, but they didn’t have enough votes in the senate to prevent a filibuster. The lack of solidarity among Republicans has been a longstanding problem for the GOP. Democrats strip campaign funding from senators and congressmen who go rogue, and thus force them into unified compliance. Republicans, however, never seem to be in total agreement on any issue. Nor have they been able to heal the rift between moderates and conservatives. That rift showed itself again in the budget vote. Former President Trump urged all Republicans to vote against the budget because it was a spending monstrosity. Twelve of the fifty senators, including Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted for the bill. McConnell stated reason for doing so was that the bill gave a nice bump to defense spending and increased non-defense spending less than the rate of inflation. Unfortunately, however, last year’s level of non-defense spending was a product of liberal Democrat action, so the 5% figure is misleading.