Last Wednesday, retiring Republican Senator Kit Bond (MO) told National Journal that “We’ve got to have an omnibus” spending bill passed during the lame-duck session.
No, senator, we really don’t and we really shouldn’t.
The senator’s rationale is that “our job, according to the Constitution, is to appropriate money.” While this is in fact the case, why did you and your colleagues abdicate this most basic responsibility to budget all year long?
After waiting this long, the American people can afford to wait a few months longer, particularly considering the immorality of passing major legislation during a lame-duck session.
Countless congressman and senators, including Senator Bond, are retiring or were just defeated, and thus are not accountable to the public for their votes, prompting Senator John Kerry to remark that “it may well be that some members are free and liberated and feeling that they can take a risk or do something.”
This unaccountable liberation should be enough reason to forgo pursuing a substantial spending bill. But there’s also the relevant factor that voters just rejected the Democrats and their out-of-control spending, passing a resounding new mandate to bring about a smaller, more limited government that lives within its means. Any efforts in a lame-duck session that work against this mandate would simply be immoral. The proper size and scope of our federal government should be determined by the next Congress, not this one.
In spite of these strong moral arguments, Senator Kit Bond is still readying to become the 60thvote for a massive omnibus spending bill, breaking any potential filibuster attempts by his Republican caucus.
Equally problematic is the Obamacare policy pickle Bond would put us in. Either an omnibus bill or a continuing resolution that funds government through the end of the fiscal year would provide Washington bureaucrats with the funding to continue implementing the law. However, if the lame-duck Congress passes a short-term continuing resolution, as morality would dictate, then the new Republican House of Representatives can de-fund the implementation of Obamacare and prevent this guaranteed train wreck from leaving the station.
Whether he means to or not, Senator Bond’s support for the omnibus spending bill advances the continuation of an Obamacare law he claims to reject. Whatever rationale he finds most persuasive works for me; at the end of the day, our message is simple: Bond must back down.
Alex Cortes is the Chairman of Restore the Dream PAC, whose first initiative DumpTheDucks.org is fighting against a lame-duck omnibus spending bill