Rock and A Hard Place

I sure wouldn’t want to be president. The directions he’s pulled in, pushed from and thrown into often seem untenable. Too many of the choices he’s forced to make are just no-win.

That said, and without the usual Monday morning quarterbacking we’ve come to expect from most political thumbsuckers, I am very disappointed that President Trump signed the budget last week. It isn’t just him! Republicans in Congress caved to Democrats instead of doing what was best for the country. My disappointment isn’t confined to one or two reasons, there are a great many reasons.

One bright spot in the budget is that it takes the first step to rebuilding the military power that President Obama tore down. Reagan was right, “peace comes through strength.” Thankfully, it’s a lesson President Trump and Congressional Republicans haven’t forgotten.

Sadly, they didn’t apply the same wisdom on a variety of other issues.

One of those is the issue of sanctuary cities and states. It’s hard to believe Republicans would allow left-wing Mayors and Governors to break federal law with impunity. But it’s an outrage that, in the process of breaking the law, those Mayors and Governors are endangering the lives and property of the rest of us. Congress could have penalized those who would protect known violent criminals by withholding funds, but they failed. They could have allowed those victimized by illegal aliens to sue the Mayor and Governors who put them in danger. Again, they failed. Very disappointing.

Another issue the budget could have helped resolve was Obamacare. Instead, Congress punted. As a result, Americans will see premiums go up again next year — 10% or more. The so called Affordable Care Act is another big government program Americans just can’t afford any longer.  

Meanwhile, the left got plenty of spending for their worthless social programs. As opposed to helping the American people, Congress chose to pass a 1.3 trillion dollar budget. Good grief, 1.3 trillion dollars, much of it borrowed from the Chinese!

I don’t particularly care about DACA, and obviously I’m not alone. But the Democrats showed a new level of cynicism when they claimed nothing was more important than dreamers, then quickly threw them under the bus when it came to saving their big-government programs. Democrats can blame Republicans all day long, but their “efforts” on behalf of dreamers was never anything more than a political ploy to gain Hispanic votes. It’s funny we don’t see Hispanics rising up in the streets protesting their under-handed and despicable treatment by Democrats.

It would have been nice to see more money for the wall — virtual or physical — but it’s an issue that’s not going away. And even if every dime needed to build the wall had been in the budget, the left will tie it up for years with law suits and environmental studies.

I would also have liked to see our mammoth federal bureaucracy restructured, reformed, and reduced. Especially with Republicans in control of Congress, Americans should be able to expect our government to be more efficient, more frugal, and a lot more responsive. Unfortunately, we missed the chance with this budget.

Once upon a time, Republicans were principled disciples for fiscal responsibility. Today, there’s so little daylight between Democrats and Republicans on spending, most people can’t really tell the difference. No wonder Americans admit to being confused about who and what their choices are this election. For both parties, it’s screw the taxpayers, and spend, spend, spend.

It was critical that Trump fix the military which is why he signed this terrible budget. I get that. But what would have been the harm in forcing Democrats to vote against the budget and let the government close down for a few days. It might have returned them to whatever little sense they have left and saved the American people a whole bunch of money.

Again, glad it’s not my decision!