News/Commentary

‘Remind me why…’ Rand Paul asks KEY question of Republicans as fight over Omnibus grows

March 21, 2024 | | Print Article

A growing number of congressional Republicans are calling for their colleagues to not pass an omnibus bill, even if it means a shutdown.

At issue is a 1,012-page omnibus bill that was released at 2:32 am Thursday morning, only hours before an early morning vote on the bill. The problem is that few even know what is in it.

“It takes 27.8 hours for the average reader to read 1,000 pages. I guess we are supposed to just pass it first and then find out what’s in it like Nancy Pelosi says,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted about the omnibus bill early Thursday morning.

She further noted that House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, isn’t allowing any amendments to be proposed to the bill. In addition, Johnson has evidently ignored months of requests for him “to pass single appropriation bills.”

Look:

Despite growing opposition to the omnibus, pressure is mounting because the government will shut down at the end of Friday unless something, anything — including a continuing resolution — is passed.

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“Lawmakers are racing to pass the legislation before a Friday midnight deadline in order to prevent a lapse in funds for over half the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and health agencies,” The New York Times notes.

But given that Republicans control the House and have enough power in the Senate to filibuster Democrats, then why shouldn’t they use this power to tighten the nurse’s purse strings instead of loosening them? That’s what Sen. Rand Paul would like to know.

“Remind me why even though GOP has the majority in the House and filibuster-proof minority in the Senate, the power of the purse sits idly by unused and the debt continues to pile higher and higher?” he tweeted Thursday morning.

Look:

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Others meanwhile used X to list their reasons for not voting for the bill.

Rep. Mary Miller wrote she’d vote no because the bill funds the non-governmental organizations that have been trafficking criminal illegal aliens into the U.S.

According to Miller, the bill will also allow the Biden administration “to keep using the ‘CBP One App’ to fly illegal aliens directly into our communities and ‘parole’ them.”

As previously reported by BizPac Review, the bill would also completely fund Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s agenda, which so far has not involved securing the border.

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Sen. Mike Lee meanwhile posted a tweet encouraging his colleagues in the Senate and House to not sell their soul “for an omnibus you haven’t seen.”

“Don’t support a bill you’ll never have a chance to read. Just say ‘no’ to The Firm™️ and its manipulative, soul-crushing tactics. You didn’t run for office to be servile acolytes to The Firm™️,” he wrote.

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As of around noon Thursday afternoon, it appeared that the only person who’d actually read the bill was Rep. Tim Burchett.

“Somebody just asked why I voted against a Republican bill that spent a $billion dollars? I told them ‘I read it,'” he tweeted early Thursday.

As for House leadership, they were reportedly busy telling Republicans to vote “yes” on the omnibus.

Vivek Saxena
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