shell game with the eventual relief from the summer that didn’t pass until the very last days of December. But at least the final combined $900 billion COVID-19 relief package passed. You’d think extraordinary times would demand extraordinary measures, responses that are clear, fast, uncomplicated, and – most of all – effective. But because Congress is broken, the only way our legislators can pass anything is to lump everything they want to do in a single, sprawling spending package... called the budget “reconciliation” bill. So the vital $900 billion relief package crammed into the Consolidated Appropriations Act. That $1.4 trillion 5,593- page monstrosity had to be wheeled through the halls of Congress on a dolly. Worse, it was presented to those who would decide upon it an absurd six hours before it was to be debated. If you don’t believe how abusive and monstrous the document is, you can read it for yourself at the site for the House Rules Committee. But I doubt many of you have taken the time. Who could blame you? So what do you need to know? One of the few remaining old-school journalists, Joe Concha, wrote an editorial that described the bill as “exactly what one would expect from a dysfunctional, tone- deaf Congress: a pork-filled cluster filled with anything and everything that has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic or relief.”
But because Congress is broken, the only way our legislators can pass anything is to lump everything they want to do in a single, sprawling spending package
What is the evidence for such a scathing assessment? Here’s a brief selection: • $10 million of taxpayer money for “gender programs” in Pakistan. • $40 million for operation, maintenance, security, and capital repairs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. (The $25 million they received in the last COVID relief act clearly wasn’t enough.) • $1 billion – yes that’s BILLION – for the Smithsonian Institute and Museums, in part to establish a Women’s History Museum and an American Latino Museum. (Yes, you read that right.) • Just in case you thought the spirit of SNL was dead, the act mandated the creation of a commission to educate “consumers about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame.” (Are you amused? Or angry?) • And lastly, it includes the following international-aid giveaways that have nothing to do with America:
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January 2021
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