Republicans own the House, the Senate, and the Presidency–all for naught

How many years have we heard all the ‘if onlys”?  If only we had the Senate, if only we held the House, and if only we had the Presidency.  Now we have them all and what is getting us?  Nada, rien, nothing.

How many of our representatives promised to repeal Obamacare the second we held Congress and the Presidency? Virtually every, single Republican on Capitol Hill.  And didn’t Trump promise to sign a bill to repeal Obama care on his first day in office?  Trump has been in office for over a hundred days, with no bill to repeal Obamacare anywhere in sight.  Apparently those previous 15 bills Congress passed to repeal Obamacare were just a joke. Congress passed them knowing Obama would never sign the bills. Now they have a Republican in the White House and they can’t bring themselves to pass a bill repealing Obamacare.  They’ve all lied to us, over and over and over.

Now Congress is about to pass another omnibus bill under a continuing resolution where Republicans get next to nothing. Wasn’t Trump supposed to be a shrewd negotiator?  If he negotiated anything on this bill he failed miserably. He got a minor increase in Defense while Democrats got everything else they wanted!   Planned Parenthood has full funding, EPA got 99% of their budget approved, and Puerto Rico got bailed out of their debt. There was not one cent for the wall on the Southern border that Trump promised voters.  But California got funding for their silly high speed rail and Amtrak got more money too.  The budget has no cuts at all for sanctuary cities across the country.  The arts are fully funded, some with even more funding than in the past. Looks like we’ll be paying for National Public Radio and Television into the foreseeable future.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer thinks the $1.070 TRILLION bill is great. From the Washington Examiner: 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the budget deal as a “good agreement for the American people” that “takes the threat of a government shutdown off the table.”

 

“The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren’t used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison pill riders, and increases investments in programs that the middle-class relies on, like medical research, education, and infrastructure,” Schumer said in a statement. “Early on in this debate, Democrats clearly laid out our principles. At the end of the day, this is an agreement that reflects those principles.”

Of course the Democrats love the bill, they get everything they want while the Republicans we supported handed it to them.  Democrats declared victory when they were able to eliminate 150 “poison pill” riders on the bill. More from the Washington Examiner: 

“This bipartisan agreement eliminates more than 160 poison pill riders that would have been devastating to the environment, put restrictions on consumer financial protections and attacked the Affordable Care Act,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. in a statement. “Such riders have no place in a must pass spending bill.”

Yup, Democrats are positively gleeful over this bill. They believe the vote today sets them up for legislative successes for years to come.  Isn’t that special.

To add insult to injury today President Trump said he may support an increase in gas taxes.  Is there anything else Trump and the Republicans can do to hurt those who supported them, worked for them, and voted them?

My predictions, if our Republicans continue to roll over for Democrats by failing to repeal Obamacare, failing to build a border wall, failing to cut spending, we will lose the House next year and possibly the Senate.  Trump will be a one term wonder, being soundly defeated in 2020.  The Democrats will win both houses of Congress and the American people will be facing a less secure country and much higher taxes.  We will have no one to blame but our Republican leaders, and ourselves for electing them. And it won’t make a bit of difference.

More on the budget resolution here and here.

An interesting summary of how we got here.   It’s the uniparty!

Good quote about the budget from Ken Cuccinelli in this article.