Congress' spending diarrhea is bad for Americans - Laura Hollis

Congress’ spending diarrhea is bad for Americans –

There was – presumably – a time in the history of this country when both major political parties could honestly state that the policies they advocated for and taxpayer dollars they spent were legitimately for the benefit of America and Americans.

No longer.

Congress’ spending diarrhea and President Joe Biden’s executive mandates make clear that whoever the Democrats (and establishment Republicans) are looking out for, it certainly isn’t this country or its citizens.

Americans were shocked and infuriated to discover that the $2.3 trillion spending bill Congress drafted in December 2020 gave Americans a paltry $600 in COVID-19 relief, but shelled out hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to foreign governments like Sudan ($700 million), the Palestinian Authority ($250 million), Egypt ($1.3 billion), Pakistan and Myanmar.

Now, Congress is getting ready to spend another $1.9 trillion that Democrats are spinning as COVID-19 relief. Most of it, however, goes not for COVID-19 relief but to Democrats’ pet projects that are largely unrelated to the pandemic. Some provisions are frankly destructive. The $15 minimum wage mandate in the bill, for example, has been projected by the Congressional Budget Office to cost 1.4 million jobs.

How is that good for Americans struggling to restart their businesses or find employment?

The bill provides financial assistance to farmers and owners of small businesses like restaurants. But policy analyst Betsy McCaughey revealed this week that much of the relief prioritizes farms and businesses owned by minorities and women over those owned by white men, no matter how much they’ve lost.

How is a policy of deliberate discrimination by the United States government good for America or Americans?

Biden’s rule by diktat is every bit as bad as Congress’ profligate spending, as a review of just a few of Biden’s 55 executive orders, proclamations and memoranda shows.

For example, Biden’s EO killing the Keystone Pipeline will destroy tens of thousands of jobs – in high-poverty areas, no less – and cost affected states tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues. Forbes energy author James Conca wrote more than two years ago that America’s oil and natural gas production has increased, but the number of refineries has not; this translates to transporting ever-larger amounts of crude and natural gas farther across the country. Moving that fuel by pipeline is faster, less expensive and safer than trying to move the same amounts by truck or rail.

How is shutting down Keystone good for America?

Biden has also suspended drilling for oil or natural gas on federal lands or waters, and stated his intention to focus on “climate change.” Prices for gas are already up – and higher fuel prices drive up the production and transportation costs of everything else. The freeze in Texas last week showed with painful clarity that reliance on so-called clean energy sources like solar and wind can have life-threatening limitations.

How are these decisions good for Americans?

Biden issued an order reversing what Democrats and the press love to call Trump’s “Muslim ban.” It was no such thing. Trump’s 2017 executive order affected only seven countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – because of their lax record-keeping and history of harboring and sponsoring terrorists. Nearly 90% of the world’s Muslim population – who live in other countries – were unaffected by the order. And non-Muslim countries Venezuela and North Korea were later added to the list.

How is allowing migration from countries that harbor terrorists good for America?

Biden has stopped construction of the border wall, despite ample evidence that the wall dramatically lowered illegal crossings, drug and human trafficking. He has revitalized Obama’s DACA program, expanding amnesty for illegal immigrants – and thus encouraging even more illegal migration, including and especially sending children to the border unaccompanied. And he has ordered that illegal immigrants be counted as part of the U.S. Census. This gives states with more noncitizens a larger voice in Congress – and more Electoral College votes.

How is that fair to American citizens?

He is expanding asylum for those seeking to migrate here from Central America, and he is expanding the Refugee Resettlement Program with plans to take in hundreds of thousands from around the globe. Worse, that order abolishes the safety protocols President Trump put in place to protect America, including heightened screening of applicants, better vetting of visa applications and sharing of information between federal departments and agencies.

How are any of these policies good for America?

The unemployment rate – while down somewhat – is still nearly twice was it was pre-COVID. We have millions of Americans looking for work, and countless businesses sputtering. But Biden wants to let hundreds of thousands more people in. How is this good for Americans?

Trump had issued an order preventing Chinese companies from providing critical parts (including transformers and software) for America’s power grid, thus limiting the possibilities that the Chinese government could surveil or compromise our power infrastructure. Biden has now lifted that limitation. Why? How could that possibly be good for Americans?

“How is this good for Americans?” This is the question that should be asked of Biden and his mouthpieces every time they appear in public. If we had a national media that truly cared about our country or its citizens, they’d be asking it. Instead, we get softball questions and pablum stories about Valentine’s Day hearts on the White House lawn and Joe and Jill Biden’s love for the ages.

I am happy for anyone that has found lifelong love, including the president of the United States. But it’s hardly relevant to why he’s in the position.

There’s no better example of this absurdity than Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin’s editorial this week. She expresses her profound joy that the nation now has a real “mourner-in-chief” again.

Excuse me? We didn’t elect a professional mourner, and most of us don’t want one. But at this rate, we’ll all soon be mourning the death of the republic.

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– February 25, 2021 at 07:25PM