Preventing government shutdown… …through Egyptian education?
On Friday, March 22, Speaker Johnson finally brought to the floor of the House for a vote a minibus (omnibus?) bill to prevent government shutdown. This 1200-page bill was delivered to the representatives in the middle of the night. Does any American believe his or her representative actually read the bill before voting on it?
How could anyone be expected to comb through such a tome of legalese in that short a period of time? But…we can’t shut down the government!
So, in order to keep the government up and running, our representatives voted to send $1.4 billion to Egypt, $15 million of which is earmarked for tuition for Egyptian students. After all, the American government can’t function if Egyptian students in Egypt can’t attend school. Right?
Also included in the bill was $850,000 to Massachusetts funding a home for homosexual senior citizens. How could the government operate without that?
Another $400,000 went to an organization that, without parental permission, provides paraphernalia to help kids bind their chests and tuck their junk, because…transing teens is part of essential government function.
Billions more were allocated for medical research, a new building for the CDC (that’ll fix their issues), eradicating AIDS, genome and bio-engineering research, and so much more. Could government possibly be expected to run without these? Perish the thought!
Did I mention the $672 million for the NIH slush fund, $6.3 billion for refuge entrance assistance (read: supporting illegals), billions more for other countries, and much, much, more? Of course, all of this is Constitutional and necessary, right? But we avoided a government shutdown. Whew! That was close.
It is clear that this bill is about far more than keeping the government running. If it was just about avoiding a shutdown, it would not have required 1200 pages submitted last minute a la the ACA (“you have to pass it to find out what’s in it”). If it was just about avoiding a shutdown, it would not have come in at $1.2 trillion dollars. If it was just about avoiding a shutdown, it would not contain so many non-essential provisions. Many in government apparently believe they live in a Dire Straits video, getting their money for nothing, because this piece of legislation contains more pork than Honey Baked Hams processes in half a century. Is it any wonder reasonable representatives clamor for single-subject bills?
Speaker Johnson should be ashamed of himself for allowing this to come up for a vote. Every representative who voted “yes” on this should be run out of office with all due haste. This is an abominable abuse of us, the American people, and we should not tolerate it.
Kudos to every representative who opposed this travesty and stuck to their guns when they cast their vote. At least they recognized that government shutdown would be far better than funding scholarships for Egyptian students in Egypt.
