"Never Again"

                “Never again!” stated the president about signing a $1.3 trillion Omnibus Spending Bill.

                But, if “Never Again,” why now?!

                Republicans, as a whole, did a spot-on impression of liberal, establishment Democrats, proving yet again that there is no substantive reason to elect them. Rather than helping the president drain The Swamp, they duped him into expanding it. Democrats, who are in the minority in Congress, got everything they could possibly have hoped for—and more-- while Republicans got virtually nothing, other than an increase in defense spending, the reason Trump gave for putting his signature to the bill. 

                If Trump is the Master Negotiator he thinks he is, and if the likes of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell weren’t lying, deceitful surrender-monkeys, they would’ve forced Democrats into a referendum on defense spending alone. Democrats would have had nowhere to hide. If they had voted “no” to a pared-down bill that didn’t provide spending for everything they wanted, but that would’ve helped rebuild the military and defend the nation against the many current existential threats it’s facing, they would have had to account for their infidelity later this year. And Republicans, for once, would have appeared strong and united. Capable, even.

                But alas, that isn’t the case. If Republicans can’t get their professed policy prescriptions in place when they have majorities in the House and Senate, and the sitting president (not to mention the large majority of governorships), it is obvious that they never will. There are only five possible reasons for their complete capitulation. Either they are spectacularly spineless, secretly happy with The Swamp as is and their own status quo, pathological liars, afraid that the country’s demographics are changing so fast that they must embrace radical progressivism to retain their own power, or some combination of the aforementioned.

                The bill gives Chuck Schumer up to $3 billion for his pet pork project: building another tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey. How do you folks in Iowa and Utah like paying for that? Planned Parenthood keeps its $500 million per year subsidy. Obamacare? Funded! Agencies such as the State Department (a.k.a. “the Ministry for Appeasement”), HUD, and the EPA, all of whose budgets Trump supposedly wanted to slash, actually got budget increases, as did the National Endowment for the Arts!

                What about border security, you ask? Not so much. The bill actually stipulates that none of the $1.3 trillion can be used for building a border wall. On the bright side, some of it can be used to put up fencing, but only 33 miles worth. The southern border is 2,000 miles long. 33 is less than 2,000. The president had requested funds to hire 10,000 new border guards. The bill approves the addition of 65.  65 is less than 10,000. Worse yet, the bill continues the funding of self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” while actually expanding H1-B visas by 100,000, according to reports!

                The hiring of the brilliant and stalwart John Bolton as National Security Adviser notwithstanding, the last half of March will not be kind to Trump. He may have sown the seeds of his own destruction. No doubt, there is Stormy weather ahead.

                The Ides of March come late this year. Treachery is afoot.

                Et tu, Mr. President?