Disastrous Congress Careening Toward Inglorious Ending

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2022/11/15/disastrous-congress-careening-toward-inglorious-ending/

In Washington D.C., there are just a few weeks remaining in the 117th United States Congress — and what a Congress it has been! Right from the start this Democrat-run term has seen a parade of disasters. A mere three days into the session, Speaker Nancy Pelosi used the January 6, 2021 protests as a pretext to erect a concertina-wire-and-chain-link fence adorned with guard posts around the perimeter of the U.S. Capitol and down the National Mall. Locals nicknamed it Fort Pelosi.

The Pelosi Penitentiary might have been a better description, as the Capitol’s COVID closures were stretched out for months. Capitol Hill police teamed up with the federal Department of Homeland Security to monitor the private social media posts of visitors, families, and lobbyists before granting them permission to visit their elected officials. All these steps further detached Congress from the people and treated both like prisoners of the Democrat leadership. 

This was even clearer away from the Capitol, where the confiscation-by-inflation spending drained Americans’ bank accounts and paychecks alike. The Democrats’ climate change obsession served as a convenient excuse for giving in to the economy-killing demands of the Eco-Left and hamstringing American prosperity and development, all the while loading the people down yet further with ever-greater mountains of debt.

Now, in these last weeks on the Hill, Congress’s big spenders only double down — like a gambling addict who refuses to leave the casino. In the Capitol Hill Casino, however, no matter where the Roulette wheel stops, the People always lose. In these next few weeks, this money-hemorrhaging government will only get more expensive for Americans as more national spending bills, including the National Defense Authorization Act, receive consideration.

Maybe Democrats leaving office can come to their senses. They just had a several-week mid-term recess where undoubtedly, they heard from constituents who complained about crippling cost of living. The likely shift in power from Democrat to Republican should act as a wake-up call, prompting a reform in their bad spending habits when they return to Hill. Or maybe they could just clean out their offices and do no further damage.

Any credit or debt financial specialist would advise the Democrats to stop spending. “Cut your credit cards.” “Stop attempting to solve problems with new lines of credit.” The message sent from voters to Democrat lawmakers was clear:  spend within your means and do not prop up pie-in-the-sky liberal social projects. Will they get the message? Probably not.

Thus, here’s what to expect in this lame duck session:

 

The [Dis]Respect for Marriage Act:

Still waiting for a vote, lingering just outside of the doors of the U.S. Senate floor, is the so-called Respect for Marriage Act. This bill would mark yet another step in Leftists’ society-destroying “progress.” It would eliminate the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and force every state in the union to support whatever new abuse of language and denigration of humanity Leftists anywhere in the country will label as “marriage.”

In Massachusetts, this means Cambridge’s and Somerville’s and Arlington’s dangerous acceptance of polyamory may yet be paired up with the child marriages from other states and stamped with “full faith and credit” as marriage in every state in this country.

This deliberate regression to barbarism is exactly the kind of “progress” Democrats want in this Congress’s remaining time. Before the so-called Respect for Marriage bill came up for a vote in the House in July, representatives had 48 hours to consider the implications of it. Many Republican representatives said they voted for it because they didn’t have enough time to work out its implications. The bill is a shameless threat to citizens and organizations of faith. Once the lack of religious protections and legalization of polygamy were pointed out, the authors attributed them to scrivener’s error. Then, with no meaningful correction, sent it straight to the Senate floor anyway, for a vote before the session ends. (Where it has lingered, until after the election that has now passed.) All these excuses are, of course, as empty and disingenuous as Pelosi’s “pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it” and Obama’s “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” It’s past time people inside and outside of Congress started treating these tricks with the contempt they deserve.

The pattern is as simple as it is shameless:  Sequester Congress from public accountability while ramming through terrible policies that will cost the American taxpayer trillions in debt.

Next up is the National Defense Authorization Act.

 

National Defense Authorization Act … and Abortions?

One might think that the National Defense Authorization Act was called that for a reason, but evidently the Democrats don’t agree. Unless they think promoting the pre-birth death of infants somehow defends the nation. A recent October 20, 2022 memo from the Secretary of the Department of Defense made this clear, ordering the department to provide what amount to all-expense-paid visits to abortionists, abortion included.

In the next few weeks this is exactly where Democrats seek to put up the biggest fight as they consider funding for the military. Nuclear-armed Russia threatens eastern Europe and Ukraine. North Korea tests ballistic missiles over South Korean airspace. An unstable Iran seeks a nuclear arsenal while its citizens revolt. What does Joe Biden call his “Top Priority, Now”?

Abortion.

I’m sure our enemies are shaking. With laughter. Our military budget is for the defense of our nation and the interest of our allies across the world, not for the Democrats’ ghoulish enthusiasm for ensuring fewer newborn Americans. The Democrats’ constant misuse of the military as ideological test subjects has already done incalculable harm, and now they mean to do more.

 

Debt Ceiling 

With this session set to let out December 16th, yet another Democrat-sponsored disaster is on the list. Waiting in the wings is a possible reconciliation package, which would raise the debt ceiling limit to allow for, you guessed it, more spending. This would only be the fifth time in history Congress has chosen to do this. Each previous time it was paired with enough spending cuts to balance the budget. Here Democrats seek to use budget reconciliation to sneak in a crowning achievement of money-burning in the form of an interminable list of pet-project payoffs. What’s another few trillion to this Congress? 

The 117th session will wrap up in a few weeks, but there is still so much left to watch.  This spend-heavy, fiscally-irresponsible, partisan-agenda-driven Congress is keen on using its waning power to pursue more destructive liberal policies while crushing Americans with debt. Sure, it’s careless and irresponsible; that’s just par for the course in this session of Congress.

 

Jonathan Alexandre is an Attorney and Senior Counsel for Governmental Affairs in the Washington D.C. office of Liberty Counsel. Jonathan also serves as General Counsel for the Frederick Douglass Foundation. Jonathan began writing New Boston Post shortly after its inception in 2015. Jonathan previously worked for The Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs in Jerusalem, Israel, and the United States Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School. He is married to his wife Renee Alexandre. They live in Waldorf, Maryland.

 

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