The House Progressive’s “Express” Keeps Rolling

Back in late April, when oil prices had a major drop (fortunately not lasting), the inevitable Representative Ocasio-Cortez reportedly tweeted the following (quickly deleted): “You absolutely love to see it.”  The “Green New Deal” promoter was happy to see oil falling, with hopes that such would bolster the prospects for the renewable energy alternatives and mega-socialist programs she champions.  Clearly forgetting the millions of American jobs connected with the nation’s oil and natural gas industry that could be lost, and even now, are at risk with the virus-driven deep dive in our economy. Her knee-jerk response was without thought and immature.

At about the same time, her Squid buddy, Representative Tlaib let loose about her hatred for, in her words, “corporate greed,” which, reading between the four-lane- highway-size lines, is basically just another attack on capitalism, the finest economic system in the world, one ever open with opportunity (in more normal times), and the engine that drives America’s economy.  She considers corporate greed to be “the disease in our country,” an illness equal to the coronavirus epidemic! In her tweet on many subjects, she wrote: “Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequality, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding and hate.”

You probably noticed a two-word shot at all manner of mining and producing oil or natural gas. She was ahead of her time with the reference to rage and hate, both primary attributes (along with ‘confusion’) harbored and continually demonstrated by the cheerleaders for Progressive-Socialism and by violent, destructive demonstrations. You see, they’re all right and good.  Conservatives are wrong and bad.  Big government domination good.  Free enterprise and individual freedoms bad. There, that simplifies things.  It really is Ms. Tlaib and her cohorts who do hold the rage franchise.  Appears she yells a lot. And I wonder if she’s thought about who pays her salary?  Surprise (to her), it’s not government.  It’s individual taxpayers who WORK.  For Ms. Tlaib and her followers, nothing this President or this system of government does will ever be right. Bottom line, and this is no shock to anyone: She is clearly anti-our-America.

In the middle of May, the House passed another $3-trillion (1,815 page!) coronavirus relief package.  And packed it was.  All manner of progressive dreams, including college debt forgiveness (up to $10,000), still more stimulus and unemployment benefits (excessive handouts, eliminating the incentive to return to work!), would begin the road to federalized elections (mail-in voting), and a $1-trillion “gift” to the state and local governments, in theory to deal with virus-caused budget depletions, which, for poorly managed Democrat entities (that means all of them), will inevitably go toward bailing out huge existing debt and under-funded government employee pension finds.  It’s a long list of free candy, most of which you’ve already read about, and most of which doesn’t stand a prayer of getting Senate approval, as is, due to its excesses (money and programs).

Republican response was swift and plentiful.  Here is but a sampling of their reactions. Steve Scalise (R-La) voiced concern that it “makes accessible hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to people here illegally.”  Kevin McCarthy (R-CA): America is in a serious crisis, but House Democrats see it as “leverage” to pass their socialist agenda.” Mike Rounds (R-SD): “Anytime they start adding in attempts to provide federal funding for abortions in a COVID-19 response, we know they’re not serious.” Tom Cole (R-OK): “It would make more sense in my view, Madam Speaker, to send it straight to Santa Claus.” Debbie Lasko (R-Ariz) who named the Pelosi bill: the “Keep People Unemployed Act” (referring to all the financial incentives not to work; no secret, hastening the road to broader government dependence).  Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) called the bill: “blatant political scammery.” Senator John Kennedy (R-La): “That’s $3-trillion! My fellow Republicans in the Senate have tried to see things from the Speaker’s point of view, but we can’t get our heads that far up our rear-ends, and I think any fair-minded American would agree, once they read the bill.”  Emphasizing that it would not pass, as is, in the Senate, he said her bill was: “dead as fried chicken.”

And, refreshingly, from the other side of the aisle, Joe Cunningham (D-SC): “This is Washington politics at its worst.  At a time when our country is in real trouble, we should not be spending precious time on one-side solutions that aren’t going anywhere.” Fourteen House Democrats voted against Mrs. Pelosi’s bill, while   Republican Peter King (R-NY) voted for it, the lone Republican to do so.

Not only is Mrs. Pelosi’s bill beyond-belief expense (in fact it would be the largest spending bill in the nation’s history), but it is literally Mr. Pelosi’s bill. While virtually all House members where at home during the two-month, very height of the coronavirus epidemic, Mrs. Pelosi and staff put together the 1,815-page document on their own.  So not only was her bill non bi-partisan, it was, in fact, solely Mrs. Pelosi-partisan ! Her Democratic colleagues had to read it, just like the Republicans did, when they all got back in session. The solo authorship may well be one of the factors leading to the vote defection of the 14 Democrats.  Hopefully Senate Republicans can strip all non-virus recovery aid out of the bill, although it appears that the Republican-led Senate is not that anxious to spend still more trillions, at this time.  But, thankfully, as it stands, the self-authored Pelosi bill is DOA in the Senate, as it should be.

(Ocasio-Cortez quote via townhall.com, Matt Vespa, 4-20-20; Tlaib quote via breitbart.com, Penny Starr, 4-20-20; Scalise quote via breitbart.com, Sean Moran, 5-15-20; McCarthy quote via breitbart.com, Sean Moran, 5-15-20; Rounds quote via nypost.com, Steven Nelson, 5-15-20; Cole quote via nypost.com, Steven Nelson, 5-15-20; Lasko quote via nypost.com, Steven Nelson, 5-15-20; DesJarlais quote via breitbart.com, Jeff Poor, 5-22-20; Cunningham quote via dailycaller.com, William Davis, 5-15-20; Kennedy quote via foxnews.com, Maria Bartiromo, 5-17-20)