Top O' the Briefing
Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Feather grass resists the urge to grow where kilted cynics fritter away the night.
Just in time for Christmas — another congressional dereliction of duty vis-à-vis American taxpayers.
The United States Congress — ostensibly a functional branch of a representative republic — long ago ceded many of its responsibilities. Members of both parties prefer grandstanding hearings and photo-ops to crafting any legislation that might be helpful to the people they're supposed to be representing. Any legislation that would withstand scrutiny, that is. That's one of the reasons that we've seen an uptick in presidential executive actions for so long now.
It seems that the only time our non-representative representatives take an interest in playing congresspeople is when they're working on a ghastly omnibus bill or a continuing resolution to keep the government open.
This is the part where we all say to each other, "Who cares if the government is open or not?" We've all been on the same page regarding that for a long time.
Well, here we are again — it's continuing resolution time. This is from something Christian Josi wrote for us yesterday:
As the sun begins to set on the 118th Congress, our “leaders” are preparing to pass a bloated, out-of-control spending bill in the form of a Continuing Resolution (CR) crafted by Senate Majority Leader-for-Now Chuck Schumer. As you might imagine, the CR is a gift to Democrats, special interests, and other D.C. swamp creatures, the product of a sad party looking to squeeze out a win for itself on the way out the door.
The CR is a 1500-page monstrosity. The bigger the bill, the more unnecessary spending can be hidden and snuck underneath the noses of the voters. True, the voters are very, very slow to react to this ongoing abuse, but as Christian wrote, "Schumer’s CR is a celebration of everything voters rejected," in November.
It would be easy to frame this as solely a post-election revenge play on the part of Schumer and the Dems, but we all know that Republicans are a big part of the problem.
This is from a post that my friend and RedState colleague Ward Clark wrote yesterday:
.@RepChipRoy: "SWAMP'S GONNA SWAMP!"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 17, 2024
"We're just fundamentally un-serious about spending. As long as you got a blank check you can't shrink government. If you can't shrink government you can't live free!" pic.twitter.com/Rq644JewxY
Roy has been beating this drum for a while. So have Marjorie Taylor Greene and a few other Republicans. Far too few, however.
This sets quite a stage for President-elect Donald Trump's plans for the federal behemoth when he gets back into the Oval Office on January 20, 2025. Fundamentally getting the Democrats to stop spending money like drunken Kennedy cousins on a long weekend in Cabo is a tall order; it would probably be wisest for Trump to take his own part to task first.
The Department of Government Efficiency will hopefully do its job. If Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy take a machete to as much federal waste as they say they want to, it'll be a heck of a start. If there isn't as much government to fund, Congress can't keep spending as much money.
In theory. It is Congress, after all.
The American electorate did flex its muscle in November, but voters are going to have to keep flexing if the people they elect aren't doing what they were elected to do. There are a lot of people who are going to need to change personal and professional habits if this spending nightmare is ever going to be changed
This country is overdue for some growing pains.
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