By Matt Agorist
This week, the US Congress passed the massive 1.3 trillion-dollar Omnibus spending bill. Then, early Friday morning, the Senate did the same thing. None of these politicians in Washington likely had any time to read it because the 2,200-page legislation was given to them only hours before they voted on it.
The Senate passed the proposal by a bipartisan 65-32 vote. The House approved the bill Thursday afternoon by a 256-167 vote with bipartisan backing. Exactly why this massive spending bill would receive such large bipartisan support by hundreds of politicians who never read it would be a mystery to those who don’t understand how broken Washington is.
However, to those paying attention, the reason is obvious—it gives the State more money. Both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate increased their own budgets in the $1.3 trillion Omnibus spending package.
Well here it is, all 2,232 budget-busting pages. The House already started votes on it. The Senate is expected to soon. No one has read it. Congress is broken… pic.twitter.com/izvJlUEgUM
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
The Senate alone increased its total salaries of officers and employees by $12.6 million.
As the Free Beacon reports,
Salaries of staffers in the Senate are also set for an increase. Division I of the legislation breaks down the total salaries of officers and employees, which are being raised from $182 million in 2017 to $194.8 million in the final bill, an increase of $12.58 million. The Senate also increased its expense account, as expense allowances are going from $177,000 to $192,000, an increase of $15,000.
It wasn’t just the Senate, though. Every single government agency (except for the Government Publishing Office, which remains the same), has increased their department’s budget in this bill—to the tune of hundreds of millions.
When you allow people to vote themselves raises twice a year, what else would you expect?
These are the same people who just increased the national debt by a trillion dollars—in only six months. Last week, the national debt exceeded $21 trillion for the first time ever, a little more than six months after it hit first $20 trillion on Sept. 8, 2017.
These people are addicted to your tax revenue and their addiction is ensuring the future debt slavery of our great-great-grandchildren, and their children.
During a Tweetstorm Thursday night, as he tried to read as much of the bill as he could before he was forced to vote on it, Sen. Rand Paul pointed out some of the most ridiculous points he found in it so far.
According to Paul, the US government has become so disgustingly gluttonous that they spend $1.7 billion a year to maintain 770,000 EMPTY buildings—all the while, purchasing more property.
page 550:
$9 billion for Govt Services Admin that oversees federal properties
Fed government spends $1.7 billion a year to maintain 770,000 empty buildings while continuing to buy new properties.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 23, 2018
As American college students dig themselves a never-ending pit of debt as they progress through higher education, the US is doling out tens of billions of dollars to pay for college in other countries as well as support their militaries.
Also contained in this bill is the legislation that has the potential to strip millions of law-abiding Americans, including veterans, of their 2nd Amendment rights.
As The Free Thought Project reported in December, the Fix NICS Act will pressure federal agencies and states to report as many names as possible to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, “making it only a matter of time before this list becomes so large that nearly any activity could serve to remove your Second Amendment rights.”
Although versions of the bill have been proposed in both the Senate and the House, and have received support from Republicans, Democrats and even the National Rifle Association, Rep. Thomas Massie warned that Congress will try to pass the Fix NICS Act by rolling it into another bill that looks harmless.
He was right, and both the House and the Senate have now passed it, hidden away in a massive raise for all of Washington.
Ah, but fret not free world, on Friday morning, Donald Trump said he is considering a veto of the spending bill.
The money pouring into foreign governments, the rights-violating gun control legislation, the bloated raises for an already-spoiled government, and the fact that it will add hundreds of billions more to the national debt in a very short time are areas where Trump seems most concerned. Just kidding. He’s fine with all that.
The reason Trump wants to veto the bill is that it doesn’t grant him the full amount of money he needs to turn America into East Berlin by constructing a useless and expensive wall along the US/Mexican border.
Apparently, freedom, fighting corruption, decreasing debt, and promoting the ideas of liberty all take a back seat to “muh wall.” Congratulations America, you are finally seeing what happens when we constantly vote in the lesser of two evils.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.
NIGHT WATCHMAN –
Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.
Congress said, “Someone may steal from it at night.”
So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.
…
Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?”
So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.
Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?”
So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.
Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?”
So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.
Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?”So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.
Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back.”
So they laid-off the night watchman.
NOW slowly, let it sink in.
Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration?
Anybody? Anything? No?
Didn’t think so!
Bottom line is, we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which very few people who read this can remember!
Ready?? It was very simple… and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.
The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
Hey, pretty efficient, huh??
AND IN 2015 — 38 YEARS LATER — AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS “NECESSARY” DEPARTMENT IS AT
$24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!
(THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?”) 38 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports.
Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.
Ah, yes — good old Federal bureaucracy.
The Republic is dead, broke and politicians are obsolete. Trump is running a revolving door government of useless personnel, we are radioactive and a cancer on the planet. The tall white, Reptilian Overlords have dumbed US down to a food supply/slave force. It is time to take out the trash and start over before our useless over priced military sets US all on fire like they did in CA. Energy weapons used on civilians will certainly lower our dependency on just about everything.
The wall is not useless. The porous border only serves the cartels and other vermin.
Night watchman is spot on.
Gotta wonder what other investments they have invested. hmmm hiding a large portfolio, kinda makes me say thumb down to the unfederal b.s. zentral bank of the irs thugs.