I pray everyone had a Merry Christmas and wishing y’all a Happy New Year!
The word “omni” is defined as a combining form. I remember growing up in Atlanta and our first major indoor sports complex was called The Omni. It was where our Atlanta Hawks basketball team and Atlanta Flames hockey team would play. As well, it was a major indoor entertainment venue, I attended several concerts there. The Omni was an all-encompassing venue.
We Christians are used to the word “omni” when referring to God, our Heavenly Father, in such references as “Omnipotent,” Omnipresent,” and “Omniscient.” These words mean all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing. In these cases, we admire the use of the word “omni.” However, there is one use of the word in a combining form, that should not appeal to us.
That word is “omnibus.”
The Congress of these United States is mandated to do just one thing: pass a budget for the federal government. Everything else they tend to focus on, such as marriage equality, has nothing to do with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution where the duties, roles, responsibilities, jurisdictions, and purview of the federal government’s legislative branch are enumerated. And, of course, the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution articulates that all those powers not specifically designated (enumerated) to the federal government are reserved to the States and to the People.
So what is an omnibus spending bill?
The budget of the federal government is broken into two pieces: discretionary and mandatory spending. Mandatory spending includes those items which are not in the annual budget, such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and net interest of the debt. In actuality, the mandatory spending side of the federal budget is nearly 65 percent. If the progressive socialist left had its way, it would be 100 percent. You know, Medicare for all.
The discretionary side of spending is where the budget is applied, and it is broken down into two pieces: defense and non-defense. What Congress is mandated to do is develop a budget for the United States, meaning the federal government, prior to the end of each fiscal year, September 30th.
There are 12 appropriations bills, outlining the budget categories, that are supposed to be first authorized in committees of jurisdiction and forwarded to appropriations committees. Once approved in Appropriations committees in House and Senate, these bills are then sent to the floor of respective chambers for full vote. Amendments to Authorization and Appropriations bills can be offered in committee and on the floor before the full body. This is what is supposed to happen; it is called “regular order.” When that does not happen, as often is the case, there are CRs, continuing resolutions, short-term spending measures that are passed to keep the federal government operating. Again, this is not regular order but represents congressional failure.
When the congressional failure draws near the end of the calendar year, then Congress puts together a budget gumbo called an omnibus bill. That is what happened last week, 4,200 pages, $1.7 trillion in spending, and the pressure is to pass the bill, which few, if any, have read. It goes along with the infamous Pelosi line, “we have to pass the bill in order to know what is in it.” Talk about omni-incompetence!
No one can run their household the way we see this group of Keystone cops running our budgetary process. When one does a deep dive into those 4200 pages you will find spending on line items that has nothing to do with the duties of the federal government. I love how the progressive socialist leftists during the Obama administration began calling government spending “investments.” The federal government does not invest, they spend. If the federal government were an investment house, with our taxpayer funds, they are the damn worst fiduciary we have ever seen . . . $30 trillion in debt? In the private sector, one can fire their investment advisor, sadly, Americans do not understand this concept when it comes to elected officials. They just keep getting reelected or rehired, when they are failing miserably.
Omnibus spending bills are unconstitutional and that is why we at the American Constitutional Rights Union support the idea of firing every elected official who voted for this measure. It is not a matter of Republican or Democrat for the ACRU. It is about abiding by the rule of law, our Constitution. That should be the same for all Americans, citizens, those here legally . . . and that is another unconstitutional action undertaken by these charlatans.
Steadfast and Loyal.
