Part of me wants to say that perhaps Mitch McConnell’s recent episodes, which are reminiscent of a Microsoft PC’s blue screen of death, could be to blame for the Senate Republican leader’s decision to side with the Biden administration on tying aid to Ukraine to domestic disaster relief. But, history teaches me to know better.
This is who McConnell is – a big government big spender.
We should thank McConnell for his service in some ways, particularly when it comes to the judicial branch (it is undoubtedly true that without his handling of the judicial nomination procedures in the Senate, we would not have overturned Roe v. Wade and the absolute disaster that is Merrick Garland would be wreaking havoc on the Supreme Court much as he has the Department of Justice). But if we are to thank him for his services, we also need to wish him well in his future endeavors.
According to Punchbowl News’ morning newsletter, McConnell and other Senate GOP members are going all-in on tying the two vastly different aid packages together in one spending monstrosity.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is voicing support for the Biden administration’s $40 billion-plus supplemental spending package on Ukraine, border security and domestic disaster relief. Some House Republicans are going to want to split the issue up, especially disaster funding. Others have little or no interest in spending more money on the war in Ukraine.
Senate Democratic and GOP leaders are planning to join arms and pass as many as three bipartisan spending bills next week, as we reported Tuesday. Compare that to the House, where Republicans are finding new ways to struggle to pass even the most partisan pieces of legislation.
Put this all together, and you’ll better understand just how messy this September will be. McCarthy is trying to buy more time beyond Sept. 30 to clear unrealistic House GOP-drafted spending measures. Meanwhile, McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — along with senators on both sides of the aisle — are looking to keep the spending measures clean, tidy and bipartisan.
“You look at the prior shutdowns, Republicans basically gave in, and nothing was accomplished,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said. “And, in fact, the shutdown didn’t save any money. It actually cost more money.”
This reckless decision comes on the heels of multiple reports over the last week about just how much the national deficit has ballooned. We are not currently in a war, an economic recession/depression, or a pandemic, and yet the federal government is spending like we are.
Biden claimed over the Labor Day weekend that he has cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion since he’s been in office. I’m not a math guy, but given that we’re now looking at the government essentially doubling deficit spending from $1 trillion to $2 trillion by the end of this fiscal year, I’m thinking his math is off by… well… a lot.
The Biden administration wants you to think that, economically, things are just dandy. The numbers on paper look fine, but the pain that the American public feels every time they walk into a grocery store or stop at a gas pump or pay their bills can’t be ignored. Things might be better in urban Democratic enclaves resided in by the elite, but for the rest of America, the pain is very real and it’s not getting any better.
And, while the economy is getting stronger on paper, the deficit is growing, not shrinking. That’s due to the fact that Americans are slowing down their spending, which means less tax revenue. Inflation is just taxation in that regard – the more there is, the less we spend and the less revenue the government gets.
But despite all of this pretty straightforward economic data, the people who run the government at its highest levels – Congress and the White House – want to keep the federal spending going, which ultimately puts more financial pressure on the rest of us. And it’s Republicans who are just as much to blame for the economic chaos we’re facing as it as Democrats. McConnell, Romney, and others in the Senate GOP caucus are pushing for dumb spending measures to get the bureaucratic grift going.
Which brings me back to this aid package.
There is certainly nothing wrong with aid for domestic disaster relief, the southern border, or even Ukraine. I don’t like blank checks to Ukraine, but I still think opposing Russian aggression in that part of the world is a necessary goal. However, tying all three together isn’t more efficient. It’s clearly political in nature, and McConnell is either part of the plan to pressure conservatives into going along with it or too foolish in his old age to understand what’s happening. There is no reason why these aid packages can’t be separate bills, each of which needs to be discussed, debated, and potentially passed. But throwing them all together is insane and is only meant to act as a poison pill to make conservatives who question the money we’re sending to Ukraine look like they don’t care about hurricane victims in Florida.
The goal is to browbeat the opposition into continuing to mindlessly spend the country into oblivion. McConnell and his gang are actively trying to hurt the country with these sorts of shenanigans.
