I have seen many posts and commentaries critical of the President for signing the Omnibus spending bill into law. I do not think that there was anything more that he could gain by vetoing the bill.
His top priority was to rebuild our nation’s military after nearly a decade of neglect. This bill took a big step in that direction.
Other initiatives such as building the wall, defunding Planned Parenthood, and reforms in the Veteran’s Administration were passed over by Congress. It is neither reasonable nor realistic to believe that Congress would have improved any of these other initiatives.
Republicans control both the House and Senate. It does not appear that they put up much of a fight in the bill that they gave the President. If they did not have his back at the beginning, he certainly could not expect them to have his back to support a veto.
It took a fork lift to deliver the 2200 page bill to the President. When it arrived at the Whitehouse, he looked down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol. All he could see were taxi cabs and Uber cars with members of Congress scrambling to get to the airport.
Congress is supposed to pass a budget and the President sign it before October 1 of each year. When they do not have their act together in time, they merely pass a short term extension.
For this year they extended through December 8, then December 22, then January 19, then February 8, then March 23. I count five times they kicked the can down the road. There is no evidence that anything substantive took place during those temporary extensions.
Here is the real ugly truth. The 2200 pages were churned out by lobbyists and congressional staffers who then packaged it up for a handful of elected members of Congress.
Those few members, from both parties, then push it out to the rest of the members giving little or no time for debate, much less time to read it. This is all under a cloud of imminent disaster if it is not passed by the deadline – which by then is literally hours away.
Georgia Senator David Perdue is on a lonely crusade to change the budget process. Along the way he has built support for his ideas. Congress even established a joint study committee to consider changes in the budget process.
We are now 6 months away from the next budget being due. Maybe I should more correctly say that we are six months away from the next season of kick the can.
Republicans in Congress need to stand up for the agenda on which they have been running and getting elected. Fund the wall, defund Planned Parenthood, and reduce the size of government.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts. Please forward these to your friends and share on Facebook.
Sign up to below to get my commentaries sent directly to your in-box.
I promise, you won’t get a bunch of junk and I will not share your e-mail address with anyone. When you get an e-mail from me, you can be assured that it will be easy to read, informative, and usually short. Thank you again for reading.
by 
