By Ben Di Guglielmo, Editor.
In an unsurprisingly bipartisan move, Congress has passed another “relief” bill that once again provides handouts to a variety of special interests, foreign countries, the elite class, and just about everyone except the American People. In a record setting 6 hours, the nearly 6,000 page bill was released to the congress and passed. Barring the possibility that our Representatives have developed a superhuman ability to read and comprehend 1,000 pages every hour, Congress just passed a massive spending bill that no one had any time to even read.
This legislative blitzkrieg has drawn criticism from anti-corporatist politicians from both sides of the aisle. Republican Senator Rand Paul said “My guess is that Big Spenders in Both Parties will pass this without ever reading it. Not me, I’m a no.” and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) echoed this sentiment on Twitter, stating “Members of congress have not read this bill. It’s over 5000 pages, arrived at 2pm today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in 2 hours, This isn’t governance. It’s hostage-taking.” Even though Representative AOC ironically ended up voting for the bill anyways, the sentiment of her statement is felt by the few non “sold out” politicians in Washington.
So what are the contents of this bill? Why did congressional leadership decide that the American people and their representatives did not deserve the right to read it? Perhaps they felt that the American people would not approve of the absurd amounts of money going towards foreign aid, artistic institutions, and corporations, not to mention the inclusion of a law that would make illegal streaming a felony.
To start, The bill includes over 3 billion dollars in foreign aid for countries such as Egypt, Israel, and Pakistan. With the aid going to Pakistan being used to fund “gender programs”, and 15 million dollars being sent to Sri Lanka to refurbish one of their navy ships. To put that in perspective, Congress just gave away more money than 1,100 people will make in their entire lifetime, or 60,000 people will make in a year, without a second thought. And while many would consider funding foreign gender programs and navy ships to be an essential function of the American Republic, many others are wondering how to feed their children after having their business forcibly closed by the government.
The domestic spending portion of the bill is no better, containing: 15 billion for the airlines, 2.3 billion for a submarine, 1 billion for the Smithsonian, 4 billion for the navy, 1.3 billion dollars of loan forgiveness for “historically black” universities, 7 billion for broadband infrastructure, 12 billion for banks, 10 billion for the postal service, the list goes on and on, and is still incomplete. Even now, nearly 24 hours after the bill was passed, nobody is sure about what exactly was in it. That small portion of the bill alone costs more money than 20,000 people will make in their entire lifetime, or 1,040,000 people will make in a year.
This act of rushing massive spending bills through Congress, and expecting the American people to quietly submit to our “representatives” as they covertly spend taxpayer money on foreign gender programs and submarines (in a time of crisis no less), represents perfectly the attitude that Congress holds towards the people. Our legislators see us as the bottomless bank that exists only to service the needs of their corporate donors, and advance their entanglements in foreign affairs, all the while they give the peasantry a measly $600 for our 9 months of government enforced shutdown. Congress takes no issue with ladling out mountains of debt to upcoming generations if it means they get a single second of good publicity. Our congress no longer exists to serve us, they serve themselves as well as the unions, corporations, institutions, and foreign governments that support them. If President Trump truly wishes to spend the final days of his presidency serving the people, he should veto this bill and demand a fair vote.