The Democrats officially grabbed the reins of power from the Republicans yesterday as the 116th Congress opened for business.
After electing Trump’s personally endorsed candidate for House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi and the blue side of the unibrow aisle got right to work on a new rules package designed to make it easier to advance their big-government priorities.
Included in the rules that will govern House procedures for the next two years is the revival and expansion of the “Gephardt Rule,” which will allow Democrats to abolish the debt limit without the need to hold a pesky vote to do so.
If you thought congressional spending was out of control before, wait until it can be done without going “on the record.”
Not only will the debt be easier to ignore, but this rule change paves the way for the socialist agenda of the Far-Left to receive massive increases in spending.
In the good ol’ days when there was at least a remnant of conservatism within the GOP, such a rule change would have faced enough opposition to minimize the damage. Sadly, those days now only exist in our memories because conservatism is nowhere to be found in the White House or Congress.
Trump solidified his liberal credentials a few months ago when he cut a deal with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi for a short-term debt ceiling increase as the first step toward permanently eliminating it. The agreement will make it for Trump and his Democrat buddies to spend the trillions of dollars he needs to advance his big-government agenda.
“For many years, people have been talking about getting rid of the debt ceiling altogether. And there are a lot of good reasons to do that, so certainly that’s something that will be discussed. We even discussed it at the meeting that we had yesterday.
“It complicates things; it’s really not necessary because you’re talking about the budget, so it’s really not necessary. But it’s certainly something we could discuss. But as long as it’s there, it will never be violated.”
At the same time that these budget “discussions” were taking place, so-called conservatives in Congress revealed their liberal hearts when the House Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee joined hands with Democrats to pass a massive $4 trillion budget that funded Obama’s priorities while giving no regard to the deficit.
When asked about HFC’s support of the deal, Chairman Mark Meadows defended their capitulation, saying that it was the only thing that would pass the Senate and that it was more important in the end to “get things done” than to continue playing “politics as usual.”
Unfortunately, politics as usual is exactly what we’ve been handed in abundance over the past two years because that’s what the unibrow party does. And while Trump and the GOP will attempt to differentiate themselves from Chuck and Nancy, it looks like all we’ll be handed over the next two years is more politics as usual.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His politically incorrect and always “right” columns are also featured on NOQReport.com.
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