Breaking: Omnibus passes House 316-113; Update: Senate approves, 65-33
Ahem. It doesn’t take much leadership to push through a bill that the opposition supports and that Obama wants to sign. John Boehner could have done that. The huge expansion of H-2B visas alone should have killed this bill, especially with millions of American workers still sidelined from the Great Recession. …If anyone wonders why a demagogue like Donald Trump can dominate the Republican presidential primary race, this is Exhibit 492B.
Kelly Ayotte voted for it. Frank Guinta against it.
Last week, the DC Republican Leadership demonstrated why they are feckless and why they are no longer deserving of our support (re: our votes). Pretty much, it’s the same thing here in NH where the Concord GOP Mafia dons want our votes and then just want us to shut up. Campaign promises? Check. Soaring rhetoric? Well, no, but close enough – check. Lots of requests for our money? Check? Great talking points about how Democrats are bad? Check. And of course, like Ted Cruz says, “campaign conservatives”? Check.
Except they don’t ACT like it. They ignore what is important to us, the base; they only care about the Win in “Winning is only a precursor; what you do afterwards is most important”. It seems there is a YUUGE disconnect between the Party Leadership and elected politicians and what they “allow” to happen. For example, NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn never being Consistent and calling out bad behavior with respect to the Platform; not only by Democrats but by Republican politicians and officials acting like Democrats (e.g., instituting Obamacare Medicaid Expansion, enacting further restrictions on political speech). Dime and difference swing into action here. But they don’t care.
Like with the lasted Budget Boondoggle passed last week by the DC Republican Leadership. Couple of questions:
- The Rs have owned the US House for HOW many years now? Big majorities, too. Yet they CONTINUE to complain “we don’t have the votes to <pick your topic>. One excuse after another but doing things in Regular Order is your ONLY job! One Job – and you can’t even do that!
- You couldn’t even get a majority of Rs in your caucus to vote for your own budget – and you did it anyways? Shades of Concord where Republican leadership depends on Democrats to determine the Speaker and pass legislation.
- The US Senate has a majority larger than quite some time – you guys can’t get the job done still?
- Always the yelping “poor us, we can’t do this because Obama will veto it”. Always the excuse of “well, give us the Presidency and we can get things done”. Right – a Party that has to own everything to get anything done. Nice to see you call yourselves wusses all the time, eh?
- And don’t worry about our own State House in Concord – we’ve written plenty about Republicans pretty much passing the Democrat agenda for years – why put up with it anymore?
Back to last week’s budget bill; looking at it from the base’s standpoint, I’ve been putting a list of things together of all the things that we wanted, that we’ve complained about, and that we expected to at least go 1/2 way up the hill to fight for. No, I don’t expect any of them to actually take that political hill or die for it (like the Dems did for Obamacare), but I did expect them to take at least some flesh wounds along the way. Silly me – not even that much in putting themselves at risk in really following the Founders’ declaration of intent to take that hill at the bottom of the Declaration when they took on the most powerful nation in the world at the time.
Who knew that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are mightier than the Redcoats? Or are the Rs that bad and spineless? Anyways, that list:
- With 92 million American citizens under or unemployed in the labor force, the Republicans decided to bring in MORE immigrants – by expanding the H-2B visas from 66K to 264K and effectively joined with the Dems that “we need these people to do the work that Americans won’t do”. Such liars – they know dang well it’s the PRICE at which the work is being offered is the problem. Crony Capitalism, Republican style, anyone?
The cheap workers are deemed “seasonal” by the law, even though they can stay for 10 months, and many are hired by brokers to work at a series of different jobsites. Employers use the H-2B “guest-worker” program because it allows them to get workers for cheap — the 2016 omnibus will allow employers to set the migrant workers’ wages regardless of local wages — and also because it allows them to cut the wages paid to their regular, full-time American workers. The overall costs imposed by the H-2B program — more unemployment and higher welfare payments — are paid by taxpayers.
“Flooding this loose labor market with additional low-skilled labor hurts the wages and reduces the job prospects of those who are recent immigrants and native-born who are struggling the most,”Sessions wrote in the November letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
- An ongoing visa program that allows foreigners who invest in U.S. businesses to obtain a green card and a pathway to citizenship is “plagued by fraud and abuse” and “poses significant national security risks,” yet it was unchanged and fully funded in the omnibus appropriations bill, said Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) today.
- Our elected King gets precisely what he wants from his compliant parliament. Elected Republicans refuse time and time again to use either of the constitutional powers delegated to them to stop an overreaching executive: impeachment or the power of the purse. Impeachment would likely fail simply due to lack of votes in the Senate. But refusal to pass conservative spending priorities out of fear that Obama will veto them and that the government will then “shut down” has paralyzed the Republican opposition to Obama.
So they just give Obama what he wants.
This has been true since conservatives returned Republicans to control of the House of Representatives in 2010. It’s been true even since Republicans gained control of the Senate in 2014. Obama’s string of victories has not reversed in any marked way.
Obamacare. Republicans campaigned in 2010 on stopping Obamacare if they were returned to power. In taking his Speakership gavel, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) vowed to “do everything we can” to repeal Obamacare, adding, “I believe the health care bill will kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country.” That, of course, never happened. In every continuing resolution, Republicans have continued to fully fund Obamacare. When Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) urged the Republican House not to fund Obamacare in 2013, and Senate Democrats refused to budge from funding it fully, Republicans quickly caved, blaming Cruz rather than Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and President Obama. That awful, awful shutdown that was supposed to crush Republican hopes in 2014 ended with a massive tidal wave for Republicans. But that doesn’t stop Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) from funding Obamacare anyway in his new appropriations bill.
Executive Amnesty. In June 2012, President Obama issued his executive amnesty for illegal immigrants entering the country before the age of 16 and before June 2007. Just after the election of 2014, Obama expanded that program to include their parents. These two programs together shielded some nine million illegal immigrants from deportation under current American law. Despite the fact that Obama himself had said he had no authority to carry forth his executive amnesty, Republicans caved to him again. They ran on the promise of overruling his unconstitutional power grab. Then they proceeded to fully fund his executive amnesty before the end of 2014. Now they’ve continued to fund it under Paul Ryan’s omnibus appropriations package.
Defunding The Military. President Obama came into office pledging to end two wars – and end them he did, with losses. He also sought to significantly slash the military. This would be one area where Republicans were guaranteed to fight, right? Wrong. In 2011, Speaker of the House John Boehner signed off on the Budget Control Act of 2011, which automatically cut the budget – supposedly, since actual federal spending rose year-over-year anyway. The automatic budget cuts were never supposed to take place; Obama had insisted that any budget cuts to non-defense areas be matched by budget cuts to defense. Republicans, like idiots, signed off on this nonsense, believing Obama’s lie that Democrats would surely come to the table to avoid such strictures. It didn’t happen. Defense got slashed. Obama will keep it slashed.
Planned Parenthood. In the aftermath of the Planned Parenthood videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, showing Planned Parenthood employees bartering over the body parts of aborted babies, Republicans vowed to defund Planned Parenthood. That didn’t happen. Instead of providing Obama a budget minus that cash, Republicans went ahead and included the cash.
Climate Change. Republicans fumed over President Obama’s Paris deal, which promises that the developed world will give $100 billion per year to the developing world to compensate them for the supposed ill effects of anthropogenic climate change. Republicans said it was a treaty, and that they had no intention of giving Obama the cash to make it happen. Not so much. Under Paul Ryan’s budget, a slush fund for Obama’s climate deal remained in the bill.
The Iran Deal. Not only did Republicans pledge to oppose Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, they pledged to stop it. Instead, they gave Obama the full power to implement it with the insane Corker bill that reversed the treaty process, forcing Republicans to come up with a supermajority in the Senate in order to kill Obama’s deal. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, “this is a piece of legislation worthy of our support. It offers the best chance we have to provide the American people and the Congress they elect with power to weigh in on a vital issue.” Well, no, actually – the Constitution did that. But why do you need the Constitution when you’ve got a monarch?
- More bad news about the Omnibus spending bill: the Gosar Amendment language has been stripped out. This language would have prevented the Obama administration from implementing its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule (AFFH), a radical plan to use the power of the national government to create communities of a certain kind, each having what the federal government deems an appropriate mix of economic, racial, and ethnic diversity.
Apparently, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan weren’t up to defending the freedom of Americans to decide, through their local governments, how they will live — just as they weren’t up to slapping down the Department of Education’s assault on freedom of speech and due process.
I have a headline here from the Washington Times: “White House Declares Total Victory Over GOP in Budget Battle.” That headline’s a misnomer. There was never a battle. None of this was opposed. The Republican Party didn’t stand up to any of it, and the die has been cast for a long time on this. I know many of you are dispirited, depressed, angry, combination of all of that. But, folks, there was no other way this could go. Because two years ago when the Republican Party declared they would never do anything that would shut down the government and they would not impeach Obama, there were no obstacles in Obama’s way and there were no obstacles in the way of the Democrat Party.
When you surrender the power of the purse — and that’s the primary power the House of Representatives has. Not a penny of money can be spent in this country by this government without the House of Representatives authorizing it. Obama can spend all he wants, but if the House doesn’t give him the mechanism, he can’t spend any of it. But the Republicans squandered that. They gave up the power of the purse. The reason they did that is because for some inexplicable reason, they are literally paranoid and scared to death of even being accused of doing something that would shut down the government.
House leadership allies Wednesday night fought off a last-ditch attempt to add conservative provisions to the $1.1 trillion spending package that would have driven away Democratic votes.
The powerful Rules Committee, which decides how exactly a bill will be structured on the floor, rejected a suite of amendments from the House Freedom Caucus that focused on a range of topics, from national security and abortion to environmental regulations
- First of all, we need to look no further than the fact that this deal is dumping another half trillion dollars in debt on our heads right out of the gate…We also lost the amendment on the American SAFE Act, which might have allowed us to more carefully screen “refugees” from terrorist infested areas before we have more San Bernardino scenarios on our hands…the deal would adopt environmental and renewable measures that Democrats want. These include extending wind and solar tax credits, reauthorizing a conservation fund for three years and excluding any measures that block major administration environmental regulations.”…DACA is fully funded…
- THey caved on illegal immigrant border crossing funding:
On page 917 of Ryan’s omnibus a section titled “Refugee and Entrant Assistance” funds the President’s resettlement of illegal immigrant border crossers.
- The 2009-page bill was unveiled at 2:00 AM on Wednesday morning and then adopted by roll call vote only two days later. How many members read it? THAT kind of cynical chicanery was supposed to end.
It continues almost all of the subsidies and slush funds of the prior budget, like the 30% solar energy investment tax credit, tax breaks for race horses and film productions, while dropping over 150 restrictions on spending that were in the House-passed budget resolution.
Dropped from the bill at White House insistence was the ban on funding of Planned Parenthood, a prohibition of EPA’s unconstitutional expansion of carbon emission rules never authorized by Congress, and a rollback of Obama’s takeover of local zoning under an illegal expansion of the Fair Housing Act.
Not a single one of Obama’s several unconstitutional executive actions was defunded.
The bill expands the number of low-wage workers brought into the country as guest workers, guest workers who never go home because no one is enforcing the visa expiration dates.
The bill also expands the number of Muslim immigrants and refugees to nearly 300,000 annually.
It allows DHS to tap into a $1.6 billion “refugee resettlement” pot to house and then “resettle” the tens of thousands of “Unaccompanied Children” crossing our southwest border.
- Congress has adopted a 2016 federal budget that makes it official: The Republican Party and the Democrat Party have merged.
In the name of stability and progress, Republican leaders have agreed with Democrats to put big government on autopilot — with no change in the programmed destination, full-blown socialism. On December 18, at Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)’s urging, 150 House Republicans voted to double down on the politics of surrender.
Yesterday, we thought we had two parties, Republicans and Democrats, but now we see that we have only one, the Repubocrat Party, the party of No Shame.
In the upcoming 2016 election, you can vote for the candidate of your choice, and it won’t matter. Government growth is on autopilot and the expansion of an imperial federal government will continue, whether we elect Democrats or Republicans.
Republicans will talk about smaller government, but no one is fooled: they won’t actually DO anything about it.
Republicans will talk about border security, sanctuary cities, and five million visa overstays, but they won’t DO anything to alter the status quo.
Republicans will talk about reining in an out-of-control EPA, but they won’t pass any funding controls to change EPA behavior.…The Repubocrats’ federal budget abandons every promise made to Republican voters. Against criticism, they chant, “Obama made me do it!” while cowardly refusing to send Obama any bill worthy of his disdain.
- Even new Speaker Ryan is walking away from Speaker Ryan on his involvement (“Who, me?”) he’s been in the position for what, 3 weeks and already with the excuses?:
House Speaker Paul Ryan defended but distanced himself from the $1.1 trillion spending bill Congress just passed to the dismay of many conservatives.
“This is divided government, and in divided government you don’t get everything you want,” Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said in a taped interview for NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Ryan put responsibility for the agreement on his predecessor, former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Ryan said the bill was largely negotiated when he became speaker seven weeks ago.
“I walked into the speakership seven weeks ago with this process already in place, with this cake already baked,” he told host Chuck Todd.
And THIS just floored me:
He said passing the measure puts the GOP in position to contrast themselves with Democrats headed into the 2016 elections.
Sorry but I CAN’T contrast you with the Democrats – you ARE with the Democrats!!!!! Stop with the words – contrasts are done with actions and you ain’t got none that do that.
Reid spikes the football: ‘Successful year for Democrats’
Senate Democrats on Friday boasted that they successfully managed to get just about everything they wanted in a massive spending and tax cut bill, despite being the minority party in both the House and Senate. “Months ago, Democrats called on Republicans to work with us to craft a budget agreement. We wanted to get rid of sequestration, we were able to do that,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “We wanted to make sure there is parity between defense and the middle class, we wanted to make sure that we kept these poison pills off the legislation.” “All three goals we had, we accomplished,” he said. Reid said Democrats were able to beat back GOP efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, and stop plans to tighten rules for accepting refugees.
…Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the positive results for Democrats came after his party blocked passage of key defense bills that would have boosted defense spending, without any promise to boost domestic spending. Blocking those bills eventually forced Republicans to agree to the Democratic demands.
…Durbin also boasted that Democrats were able to push to renew the Export-Import Bank, after it was prevented from taking on any new business since the summer. The bank was renewed as part of a long-term highway bill.
The ugly work that went into the massive pork-filled omnibus spending bill snaking its way through congress is now starting to be exposed.
And it’s not for the faint at heart. Members of congress had little input in the bill and didn’t even in many cases know what was in it. Senator Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Republican of Alabama, in a blistering interview Thursday night, shed some light on the details.According to Sessions, lawmakers found out what was in the bill by talking to lobbyists, who had a better idea than they did as to what was being included in the bill. “No member of even the House and Senate knew what was going on,” he told Portland, Oregon talk show host Lars Larson. “Special interests did because we heard from lobbyists what some things were being considered.”
Sessions went on to note that basically four members of congress put the deal together without consulting their colleagues. “It’s not right for ultimately four members, in secret — for reasons we have no understanding of — to make critical decisions on things,” he said.
So why didn’t you vote it down?
- And here’s the numbers for proof that after GIVING the R Leadership the numbers they wanted in the House and Senate, they turned to the Dems to pass their bill:
Republicans control the House and Senate – specifically because we supported them into office – however, this spending/tax package was passed with DEMOCRAT SUPPORT.
Stop – Pause – Think.
Republican Majority Speaker of The House Paul Ryan and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell passed a spending and tax bill supported by more Democrats than Republicans.
Let that sink in.
The “Consolidated Appropriations Act” (AKA Omnibus) was added to HR 2029 (Tax Bill) and sent to the Senate as a single, combined package. The vote to do this was:
316 Yea, 113 Nay
166 Democrats supported, 150 Republicans supported. (link)
A spending and tax bill more supported by Democrats than Republicans is passed while Republicans are in control of the House of Representatives.On the Senate side HR 2029 – A vote in favor was to approve the package and send it to the President for a signature. So what happened?
65 Yea, 33 Nay
38 Democrats supported, 27 Republicans supported. (link)
Again, within the Republican Controlled Senate, the spending and tax bill was more supported by Democrats than Republicans.Summary: We gave Republicans large majorities in both the House and Senate so they could push-back against ridiculous progressive big government spending. What did the REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP do with the majority? Republicans constructed big spending on behalf of the Democrats and voted with them to end up with the same result if Democrats were in control.
RUSH: …I’m talking about the so-called conservative intelligentsia, people like David Brooks who honest to God wrote, “Yeah, the crease in his slacks.” You’d think it’s a joke, actually wrote that. But even beyond that, this was not something that required a lot of complexity to unravel, to understand. It was right out there in front of your face, and our people looked at it as nothing more than an intellectual feast, a great chance to have a great argument. And they end up agreeing with Obama more than they do their own side.
…RUSH: Hey, folks, rather than me go through the analysis and reaction to the budget deal again, Koko, go ahead and — it’s probably still there from last week. Grab the first — there were two or three different segments in which I opined about the Republican budget deal. I mean, the most recent one was that it could well be the theory behind this is that the Republican Party’s fed up with its own base and is reaching out to all the people not in the base, and this budget is a way of doing that.
…I had a couple of people, I guess it was the next day, maybe that night or the next day, “Hey, Rush, I just got back from out of town and some friends of mine are telling me that it was a sellout.” I just sent the link of what I said, rather than write ’em another e-mail. They probably think I’m avoiding them, but I wasn’t. It’s just the simplest thing, “Here, read this. This is everything I said about it.” Which, by the way, was all over, I’m told, the news this weekend, the portion of my comments in which I suggested we might want to think about disbanding the Republican Party. You know what’s amazing about that is that nobody thought it was outrageous to suggest.
…CALLER: Don’t they care about their kids? Don’t they care about the future of the country?
RUSH: This what I’m telling you: I don’t think they look at this the way you and I are. That’s been the whole point of the program up to now. I don’t think they see anything like a crisis. And furthermore, they think those of us who do, you know, are a little far out there. Maybe a little touched. Maybe a little gone. They don’t think the country’s in crisis here. They don’t think that anything like what you think.
CALLER: Will they wake up when it’s all over?
RUSH: I actually think that part and parcel of this, Randall, is even if that day comes that you asked me about, when they realize it, I think they still think they’re gonna be okay. I think they’re in the class where there’s always gonna be payback for the good work they’ve done. There’s always gonna be a job. There’s always gonna be money for them, there’s always gonna be the promise of that, anyway.
And lastly, our own Republican Congressman has gone all apologetic:
I wasn’t home at the time but TMEW told me that either Frank or someone in his office called to let me know he voted against this miserable excrement of spending and base bashing. Good for you but to say this?
[Frank} Guinta [R-NH] told Breitbart News that he has been contacted by many unhappy constituents, but believes that Americans shouldn’t focus their anger on Ryan. “When it came to this piece of legislation, I don’t think it was particularly fair to blame him personally” Guinta told Breitbart News. “He inherited a budget deal that had an extra 80 billion dollars of domestic spending in it.”
Guinta acknowledged that his opinion probably differs from many of his conservative colleagues, but he believes that Ryan did the best he could “given the circumstances that he was handed.”
Right – Frank, tell me this: how long have the Rs OWNED the majority and therefore OWNED the budget process? Didn’t you have the votes to make the Ds irrelevant? Are you trying to make Ryan seem like a patsy and totally out of control for doing this? He is, at the time of it being announced, the Speaker. Sure, Boehner was it before him but once you are the Jefe, you OWN it.
Again, I’m tired of the “not fighting it this time – we’re gonna run away and we’ll fight that good fight….er sometime in the future. Only that future never comes from what I’ve been seeing these last few years.
Hey, if NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn doesn’t care about the Platform and Principles, why should I care about a Party that does all this in MY name? Why should I allow them to ruin MY reputation by being associated with them?
Or is it, as Sarah Palin describes it:
“They did it again,” Palin wrote, referring to the just-signed $1.1 trillion Omnibus spending bill. “But like a battered wife, we keep going back because every four years they bring us flowers, beg our forgiveness, and swear they’ll never hit us again.” “The GOP establishment in Congress is our abuser. We can’t hide the black eyes any more. The whole neighborhood knows,” Palin continued. “The Democrats are gloating. Obama thanked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) effusively – and why shouldn’t he? Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) couldn’t have given him more.”
…For the last seven years, grassroots conservatives rallied to action under the belief that change starts at the ballot box. As I’ve said many times: there is nothing wrong with this country that a good old-fashioned election can’t fix.
People put their own lives on hold to send these Republicans to Congress to take back control of the House and Senate, to get a handle on our bankrupt federal government, and put America on the right track. I think of all the cross-country redeye flights I took away from my young son in order to campaign for Republican candidates, so full of promises, over the years. Others gave up a lot more than I did to elect a “conservative” majority.
Together, we grassroots conservatives gave the GOP historic electoral victories because they promised us they would stop Obama’s “fundamental transformation of America.” Instead, they abetted it. They are Obama’s accomplices.
Palin went on to say that with Omnibus bill, the Republican Congress “broke every promise they made to us. Every single one. They’ve reached a level of brazen duplicity previously known only to Democrats.” “This is why people hate politics and politicians,” she later wrote. “This is why they tune out and stay home. Reading through chunks of this bloated spending bill that drives us further into bankruptcy I steamed, ‘That’s it.
They can’t be trusted. I’m outta here because they do not stand on the planks of the GOP platform, not one iota.’”
Or it is the Stockholm Syndrome? For years, I have posted about people leaving the Republican Party because it never holds itself accountable to its own Principles – there’s always an excuse and always a disdain. Franklin Graham just stood up for his Principles and the lack of the Rs in DC to stand up for theirs:
Franklin Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and of the global Samaritan’s Purse aid organization, cut ties with the Republican Party over members’ support and passage of the 2,000-plus page, trillion-plus dollar omnibus package, including its full funding of Planned Parenthood – the organization just outed on video for selling cast-off, aborted baby parts.
And you know what? Good. Finally. Somebody with boldness who isn’t trying to hand the American conservative constituency the tiresome, whiney line, “But if we don’t stick together, then the Democrats will win.”
Speaking of “Democrats will win”, this still applies:
Consistency also comes with listening. There is a large problem confronting the NH GOP – formerly dedicated Republicans, giving of their interest, time, and treasure, are just throwing in the towel. They are dropping out and tuning out. They no longer believe their efforts are worth it when these ‘individual contributors” look up at elected leaders and go “So, what’s the difference between the Parties? So, what difference am *I* making”? And for each question, one answer suffices for both: “er, not much”. So, they quit.
Yet, some in the Party can’t under stand, grok it, and then act upon it. I tried to explain this to a female Republican of some note a bit ago:
Me: there are Republicans out there they are no longer voting nor donating to the Party. They’ve quit.
She: Well, why ARE they doing that?? Don’t they realize that this will allow Democrats to be elected?
Me: They no longer care
She: WHY don’t they care? Don’t they understand what this means for implemented policy, they are allowing Democrats to win??
Me: They realize that. They don’t care anymore.
She: They HAVE to care – Democrats will win if they just stay home. Don’t they realize that?
Me: You’re not listening to me, and haven’t been for a while. You have made them not care. Why SHOULD they care when Republicans do things at cross-purposes to what they say they stand for? Why should they support candidates that, in the end, don’t support their beliefs? When they don’t see their beliefs being advanced?
She: But Democrats will win?!?!?!
Me: Now you’re making me not care much. Whether you like it or not, whether you want to admit it or not (and I think you are at the point where you don’t want to SEE what they are saying), these people exist. They are dropping out, and you can’t seem face reality even when I put it in your face.
The long and short of it, you Republicans “of note”, the Establishment Republicans (or as I now say “Republican Republicans for the sake of the Party”), aren’t listening. They make it sound like they do, but they aren’t. How to tell? The voting data says the truth – these people have left. Stayed home. Sat on their hands. Kept their wallets shut. You may say what you want, but what the evidence says contradicts you. They are telling YOU their answer to your question of “where else will you go” – and now you aren’t listening to that answer either. Too bad.
You’ve told lots of folks: do it our way or go away. So, they’ve done what you’ve told them and have gone away. And now you don’t believe it. I’m telling you where they are going, and they are all telling you where to go, too.
They. Don’t. Care. People will work, and work hard, when they see results. Where do they see those “results” (being non-hyper media / political junkies like us)? In the media. And what do they see? Object lesson (again): Medicaid Expansion. Sure there are differences between the Dems and the Repubs – important ones, too. But NOT to the non-political-cogneseti – they see:
- Lots of Federal money coming in
- They know that money is not free
- In most cases, they ARE paying those Federal taxes that provide that Free Money even as NH GOP Rs are repeatedly saying it’s Free Money
- Thus, they see Rs all too willingly to spend it just like the Dems.
- They don’t care if one solution is traditional Medicaid & one is real insurance – they see money being spent. THEIR money being spent
So what they see? Two thieves stealing their hard earned money that means they have less to spend on or for their own families. They see, once again, that Rs are complicit in forcing them to take care of others with no choice in the matter (and no, they don’t believe this is “the price we pay for civilization – they see it having to be complicit in the Left’s involuntary ideology of the Collective). They see the Rs assisting in moving the Left’s policies of the redistribution of their wealth FORWARD! – while the Repubs simply calling it anything but a rose.
They are tired of being lied to incrementally, they are tired of being taken for granted, and they are tired of being used, they are tired of Rs not fighting for their stated ideals, and they are tired of the Rs NOT GP GOING TO THE MATS AND THE WALLS AND FIGHTING FOR THEM. Why should they fight when they see Rs being the Jr. Partners of the Democrats? So they stay home. They are hunkering in for the dystopia they know is coming and doing all they can to prepare themselves and their families to best ride it out.
You have stopped giving them hope. And THIS is the message we bring. Only you don’t listen – I can’t make it any plainer than that. It no longer matters what you believe or what you say now. Only concrete results will save you. Been saying that for a while but you aren’t listening – you’d rather bash us for saying the obvious.
Too freaking bad – we aren’t stopping and we will be the pains in you butts until you start doing what will give them hope: no more talk, just concrete actions that say “we are fighting for your freedom by once again acting to truly limit government”. In fact, look – we ARE rolling it back! And if you no longer know how to do that, just read us – we’ve been telling you for quite some time – you just haven’t been listening.
Period.
They no longer care and the Rs have no one to blame but themselves. And yet, we Groksters are blamed for bringing the bad news to light. Well, frankly Jennifer Horn and the other R apparatchiks, you SUCK at listening. And now the Piper’s kids have decided not to follow you and have gone home – they have decided that the Leader is no longer worth leading. Or following. So, just keep going, Jennifer and other Republican Republicans (aka, Establishment). If you think you can succeed without a substantial percentage of non-Establishment Republicans (the TEA Party, Constitutionalists, 9-12ers, Libertarians, and others), knock yourselves out.
We’ll be watching. And blogging. Because that’s what we do. That’s what we are. And I am truly thankful for each and every Grokster that has accepted my offer to join. And if you knew what was good for the Party, you’d be doing the same thing.
I have been made not to care and no longer will I. But only for the GOP.
As of tomorrow, I’ll be going down to my hamlet’s Townhall and switching to Independent. No longer will I have to make peace with myself to justify a continued, assumed, and implicit assent to their rather UNRepublican actions (when measured against their own Platform (which mostly at the top, they ignore or loathe anyways – else why do they go against it so often especially on the big items).
