OPINION:
Nancy Pelosi is finished as speaker of the House — as in gone, finished, kaput. But the lady’s famous assurance that Congress would have to enact Obamacare to see what was in it continues as the guiding spirit of this Congress. The congressional leaders negotiating the “cromnibus” were so determined to avoid a government shutdown that they were determined to let their colleagues be surprised by what they voted for.
Compromises never please everyone, and the architects of compromise always have uncomfortable splainin’ to do, hoping to convince the skeptical that they put enough artificial sweetener on the compromise to make the medicine go down. It’s clear that the Republican leaders were snookered again. But the appropriations package, in all its ugly particulars, is probably all the Republican negotiators could get.
The bipartisan package proves, if further proof was needed, that both parties in Congress are addicted to bigger government and bigger spending, willing to throw out conviction and principle to go along to get along. The people who gave the not-so-Grand Old Party remarkable majorities last month expected better. You might think voters would have learned by now.
Nevertheless, some Democrats are unhappy, too. Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren demand that their Democratic colleagues reject the compromise, and from their perspective they have a point.
By refusing to support a package that includes the Department of Homeland Security budget, Republicans preserve the opportunity to deal with President Obama’s immigration orders when reinforcements arrive in the Senate in January to fight a battle they can win. Better to do that than shut down the government now, however tempting it may be.
Instead of focusing on what they couldn’t get, disappointed conservatives should consider what they did get, and if it’s not nearly enough, it is considerable. The compromise legislation prohibits increased Obamacare funding while requiring the government to explain improper payment of the Obamacare tax subsidies. The compromise starves the program’s Independent Payment Advisory Board, what is rightly called the “death panel.” Preserving life is always something to celebrate.
The package preserves pro-life policies and restrictions on abortion funding while requiring Obamacare providers to tell purchasers if they provide abortion services. Money to pay for programs encouraging sexual abstinence among the indulgent and irresponsible is increased.
Republicans don’t have the numbers to eliminate or even cripple the worst sins of the Environmental Protection Agency, but negotiators managed to cut the EPA budget, to prohibit the EPA from extending its jurisdiction to farm ponds and irrigation ditches. Other provisions would protect farmers, ranchers and property owners from governmental overreach and preserve Second Amendment protections for gun owners.
The compromise speaks harshly and effectively to the Obama administration’s abuse of the tax laws, cutting the budget of the Internal Revenue Service, and specifically tells the IRS that it can’t any longer target taxpayers to punish them for their politics.
The compromise legislation begins the process of cutting back Dodd-Frank’s ability to cripple business development, it liberates small-business owners from some abusive regulations and halts the National Labor Relations Board from encouraging union organizing through card check.
These are incremental changes, to be sure, but they’re good ones. The Republican negotiators could have got more, but if they deserve no standing ovations for their work, let it be said that it could have been worse. The compromise should be supported, however grudgingly, with a reminder to the go-along to get-along leadership that changes are coming and there is more, much more, to be done. The days of trying to persuade voters with the mantra that “we’re Republicans but we’re not as bad as you think” are over.
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