In an early betrayal of the incoming Trump administration and, more importantly, American taxpayers, Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson plans to help pass a 1,500-page continuing resolution on Friday to prevent a government shutdown. be.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who will co-pilot President-elect Trump's Government Efficiency Commission with Elon Musk, said the big spending bill will do more than just keep the government running. This would add billions of dollars in new spending and, among other things, raise the salaries of lawmakers by a whopping 40%.
And in another clever ploy, there will be a provision that would allow Congress to block the new Trump administration from investigating congressional committees and their members. One almost certainly purpose is to protect the likely illegal activities of the select committee that investigated the largely peaceful protests that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A new report from the House Oversight Committee faults former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo., USA). ) colluded with key witnesses regarding her testimony, and that the J6 Committee itself withheld or failed to archive key records.
There are probably very few members of Congress who know the contents of this huge bill. Ramaswamy and Musk say Congress must reject it. Musk urged his followers on his X feed to contact their congressmen and senators and tell them to stop the wasteful policy.
“There's no reason” for Bill
In September, Johnson Pinky vowed that no such “Christmas omnibus” would pass. But now, suddenly, things have changed.
And of course, Johnson had a valid excuse.
“Johnson said Tuesday night that he spoke with Musk and DOGE partner Vivek Ramaswamy about their concerns, The Hill reported.
“I got in touch with Elon last night,” Johnson said Wednesday morning on Fox News' “Fox & Friends.” “Elon, Vivek (Ramaswamy) and I were texting together and explaining this background to them. And Vivek and I spoke last night around midnight, and he said, I said, “Look, I understand.'' He said, “I understand that you are in an impossible position.” Everyone knows that. ”
“Remember, everyone, we still have a narrow Republican lead, so any bill needs Democratic votes,” Johnson said. “They understand the situation. He said, 'Mr Speaker, this is not to you, but we don't like the spending.' I said, “Guys, I don't either.”
Except that he spends the money anyway.
In a long X post, Ramaswamy explained what's wrong with the 1,500-page behemoth, other than its routine tactics to avoid passing the actual federal budget.
“It's full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways and pork belly politics. If Congress wants to get serious about government efficiency, it should vote against it,” Ramaswamy began.
He wrote on X this morning that the “true cost” was not $380 billion, but “much more due to new spending.”
Renew the Farm Bill for another year: ~$130 billion. Disaster relief: $100 billion. Stimulus for farmers: $10 billion. Francis Scott Key Bridge Replacement: $8 billion. The proposal would add at least 65 cents in new spending for every dollar of ongoing discretionary spending.
This bill will ultimately hurt many of the people it is intended to help. Spending money on debt may “feel good” now, but it's like dousing an addict with cocaine: it's cruel, not compassionate. As taxes inevitably rise to meet our obligations, farmers will be forced to sell more land to foreign buyers. Our children will be saddled with crippling debt. Interest payments are the largest item in the national budget.
The pharmaceutical tycoon rightly argued that Congress had no excuse not to pass a budget knowing Friday's deadline was looming in September, saying, “The urgency is 100% manufactured.'' “It was designed to avoid serious national debate.”
Mr. Ramaswamy continued:
The bill could easily have been less than 20 pages. Instead, the bill's 1,547 pages are filled with dozens of unrelated policy items. There is no good reason for it to be passed as a package deal by a lame duck Congress. 72 pages worth of “pandemic preparedness and response” policy. Renewal of the much-criticized Center for Global Engagement, the centerpiece of the federal censorship state. 17 different commercial laws. Paving the way for a new football stadium in Washington, DC. Raise the salaries of congressmen and senators and make them eligible for federal employee health insurance. Pushing these measures through at the last minute without discussion is indefensible.
“They are trying to get this bill passed today while no one is paying attention,” Musk wrote in an earlier X post that raised the obvious question: meeting? “
No need for questions from the Justice Department to Congress.
surely. And even lawmakers probably don't know what that includes. Sen. Dick Durbin, a far-left Democrat from Illinois, was perplexed.
Durbin was confused when CNN's Manu Raju asked him about giving pay raises to Congress that hasn't done its job. He didn't realize he was getting a big raise.
“What about the media?” Durbin replied. “Just think about it… Half your listeners are gone. You're still getting paid the same. What's going on?”
Raju pointed to the obvious fact that taxpayers do not pay the salaries of the media.
And in a move as cynical as it is sinister, hate Trumpers on Capitol Hill may reveal what actually happened on January 6th and other efforts to get Trump. We have inserted a provision to protect us from disclosure of certain records.
If a complaint is promptly filed by an employee of the House of Representatives or a provider of the House Office, a court of competent jurisdiction will determine whether the disclosure of House data is necessary to comply with legal process. The procedure shall be invalidated or modified. House of Commons Secretariat.
This provision is important in light of the Oversight Committee's report. According to the report, the J6 committee left no evidence in its final report. And although it does not say so directly, the report accuses the J6 committee of destroying important evidence by failing to archive it.
And to make matters worse, the report accuses Hate Trump's former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney of witness tampering.
“Based on the evidence available to this subcommittee, it is likely that a number of federal laws were violated by Liz Cheney, former vice chair of the January 6th task force, and that these violations are the subject of a federal investigation.” should be investigated by the Department,” the report said.
Evidence uncovered by the subcommittee revealed that former Rep. Liz Cheney secretly communicated with Hutchinson without Hutchinson's attorney's knowledge and tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson. . This confidential communication with witnesses is inappropriate and may violate 18 USC 1512. Such conduct is not protected by the Speech and Debate Clause because it is outside the legitimate functioning of the legislative process.
The report reproduced Cheney's text messages with Hutchinson, a key witness before the J6 committee. The report alleges that Cheney received perjury from Hutchison. It alleges that Mr. Hutchison repeatedly lied to the committee about important events of the day.
