Trump Blasts Wasteful Spending in Huge $400 Million GOP Budget
While the vast majority of America was asleep Thursday night, the federal government entered another partial shutdown as Congress waited until the last moment to pass another short-term spending bill.
NBC News reported that the Senate voted around 1:30 a.m. ET to approve a $400 billion spending package that was also approved by the House around 5:30 a.m. ET, and was signed into law shortly after by President Donald Trump, ending the shutdown just hours after it had begun.
That bill, which laid out spending increases for the Defense Department as well as domestic programs over the next two years, will fund the government for another six weeks.
Trump heralded his signing of the bill and tweeted, “Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”
Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2018
But the president wasn’t entirely pleased with the bill he had to sign to reopen the government Friday morning, as he viewed the massive spending increases for domestic programs as unnecessary.
In what has been taken by some as something of a veiled shot at both big-spending Democrats and their equally spend-happy RINO counterparts, Trump lamented in a pair of follow-up tweets that he had to approve the additional wasteful spending in order to fully fund the military — something unlikely to occur in the future if more fiscal conservative Republicans were elected to Congress.
Without more Republicans in Congress, we were forced to increase spending on things we do not like or want in order to finally, after many years of depletion, take care of our Military. Sadly, we needed some Dem votes for passage. Must elect more Republicans in 2018 Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2018
“Without more Republicans in Congress, we were forced to increase spending on things we do not like or want in order to finally, after many years of depletion, take care of our Military. Sadly, we needed some Dem votes for passage. Must elect more Republicans in 2018 Election!” he tweeted.
That was followed immediately with another tweet that read: “Costs on non-military lines will never come down if we do not elect more Republicans in the 2018 Election, and beyond. This Bill is a BIG VICTORY for our Military, but much waste in order to get Dem votes. Fortunately, DACA not included in this Bill, negotiations to start now!”
Costs on non-military lines will never come down if we do not elect more Republicans in the 2018 Election, and beyond. This Bill is a BIG VICTORY for our Military, but much waste in order to get Dem votes. Fortunately, DACA not included in this Bill, negotiations to start now!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2018
According to Fox News, the short shutdown was started when Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul took a principled stand against the massive spending increase and delayed a vote on passage of the bill in the Senate until after midnight.
“I ran for office because I was very critical of President Obama’s trillion-dollar deficits,” Paul stated on the Senate floor. “Now we have Republicans hand in hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits. I can’t in all honesty look the other way.”
His position matched that of the roughly 30-member fiscally conservative House Freedom Caucus, who also took issue with the increased government spending on non-military issues.
“The … caucus opposes the deal to raise spending caps on discretionary spending by nearly $300 billion over two years,” the group stated Wednesday. “We support funding for our military, but growing the size of government by 13 percent adds to the swamp instead of draining it. This is not what the American people sent us here to do.”
No, it isn’t.
Alas, true fiscal conservatives are heavily outnumbered by Democrats and RINOs who generally couldn’t care less about increased spending or deficits — unless it helps a specific political position to do so — which is why Trump’s tweets imploring Americans to elect more conservative Republicans in 2018 was the best response he could make while placed in the position of having to sign an expensive spending bill to keep the government funded.
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