Last week, Congressional Democrats pushed themselves to the brink and waited until the very last minute to pass short-term government funding.
Between that, raising the government’s borrowing power, and two now inseparable pieces of legislation dealing with infrastructure and “social spending,” self-imposed deadlines created manufactured crises as everyone’s backs were against the wall.
Last December, Congress created another manufactured crisis over coronavirus relief, and I criticized the brinksmanship and lack of progress over the course of the year all for political posturing. However, we had divided government then, with leaders from both parties trying to box each other out.
Now? Democrats have full control of both chambers and the White House. Not only is Congress running down the clock, but Democrats tried to use the pressure of deadlines to pass legislation that the media admits will be the “largest tax increase in decades” in an attempt to have a “transformative” impact on the American social fabric.
While a portion of the bipartisan infrastructure bill may contain sound public policy, it is not the infrastructure-focused bill supporters claim it to be.
It spends taxpayer dollars on equity programs like a taskforce to increase the number of female truck drivers. It also forces the private sector to compete with the government by earmarking $2.5 billion in grants for public electric vehicle charging stations.
Imagine the outrage if the federal government provided grants to build gas pumps. There is no functional difference between the two.
Democratic leadership has tied this bipartisan bill supposedly laser-focused on infrastructure to the larger, more expansive multi-trillion-dollar tax-and-spend bill, which includes provisions like $200 million for a park in Speaker Pelosi’s district.
Passing the bipartisan bill, which itself contains a good deal of non-infrastructure spending, increases the likelihood of the multi-trillion-dollar “social spending” and Green-New-Deal-style bill passing through the budget reconciliation process.
That process only requires 50 votes in the Senate.
Last week’s fighting between Democrats’ socialists and moderates led to legislative paralysis and the rumor that the multi-trillion-dollar boondoggle will be pared back to somewhere around $2 trillion.
Now that they cannot find consensus within their own party, the progressives’ solution is not to reconsider whether their proposal is good policy. It will still be chock full of unnecessary spending, government expansion, and green new deal policies.
This proposal will drive up inflation and further insert an already-too-large government deeper into Americans’ lives.
Instead, they intend to shorten the timeframe of the bill knowing full well that when these new entitlements are set to expire, there will be little appetite among their ranks to actually end the programs.
I cannot think of a single government entitlement program that has ever ended.
While focusing so much time and effort on trillions in extra spending, Democrats in Congress ignored the fundamental job of appropriating funds for operating the federal government.
I fully expect the TV punditry class to blame Republican intransigence for the possible demise of legislation on which the Democratic majority cannot seem to get on the same page. It’s par for the course but nowhere near reality.
Democrats, with full control of government, have the ability to pass their monstrosity of an agenda. It is good they so far cannot, and I will not be complicit in radically transforming the country and growing the size and scope of government in Americans’ lives.
U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) serves in the 7th Ohio District, which includes northern Richland County as well as Ashland and Knox County.
