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Biden’s Jobs Bill is a Threat to the Republic

Biden’s Jobs Bill is a Threat to the Republic

There is an old saying: Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  That came to mind as I pondered President Biden’s so-called Jobs Bill (formerly known as the Infrastructure Bill).   It is neither.

The Democrats in Congress had already passed the $1.9 trillion so-called Covid Relief Bill.  It would more appropriately have been labeled the Democrat Pork Barrel Bill – with a small amount for actual Pandemic-related expenses.  “Small amount” as in about one out of every ten dollars – or $190 billion.

Burying unrelated budget expenditures in a Bill with a good sounding name is nothing new.  It has been the way of Congress for generations.  It was once said that you could pile on almost any spending on a Bill with the words “education” or “defense” in the title.

Though both political parties have played this game of legislative hide-and-go-seek, Republicans have been more likely to object  and Democrats more likely to abuse the scheme. 

What made the so-called Covid Relief Bill so noteworthy was the SIZE. 

This was not about a ten – or even a hundred – billion dollars shoved up the rear of this particular legislative Trojan Horse.  No no no.  We are speaking in the trillions – an amount almost beyond the grasp of the human mind.  Except maybe the minds of astrophysicists.

Democrats and their media allies kept beating up on Republicans for opposing money for more vaccination centers, grants to suffering businesses – such as restaurants – and help for schools, so kids can get back in the classroom.   That is NOT what Republicans were opposing.  They were opposing all that money to the Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts, National Public Broadcasting, more congressional staffing, etc., etc., etc. 

And above all, Republicans objected to the billions upon billions to be given to Democrat-controlled cities – such as Chicago and Detroit – to bail them out of their decades of the fiscal and financial mismanagement that preceded the Pandemic.

The Covid Relief Bill was passed and signed into law –thanks to the biased media – we got fooled.  Shame on them.

Weeell … now we have the first part of Biden’s so-called Jobs Bill.  It is another astronomical $1.9 trillion.  It should be addressing our crumbling roads, bridges and water treatment plants.  That is what it is being marketed as by Democrats and the usual media outlets.

But like the so-called Covid Relief Bill, the so-called Jobs Bill is about everything but our crumbling infrastructure.  It is mostly a social and cultural pork barrel bill.

To make the second great congressional scam work, Democrats could no longer defend expenditures that seem totally unrelated to what we common folk think of as infrastructure – those highways, bridges and water treatment plants. 

Rather than exclude them, they have concocted new definitions for “infrastructure.”  Some call it “human infrastructure.”  It essentially makes education and welfare infrastructure projects.  As Brit Hume of FOX News observed, “Baby diapers are now infrastructure.”

Education and welfare are both worthy topics of congressional debate and action.  But they are NOT infrastructure.  If you follow Democrats’ thinking to its logical conclusion, the national budget would have two parts – military and infrastructure. 

This is also another opportunity to bail out those Democrat-controlled cities.  It is a sub-rosa effort to finance the economically unsustainable Green New Deal projects.  You could even add National Public Broadcasting in this Bill, too, as part of American infrastructure.  A better debate would be whether government should be subsidizing news and entertainment in the first place.  But that is another story.

More recently, Biden has started referring to this terrible piece of legislation as a “jobs bill” even though it would take the most corrupt, politically biased or incredibly incompetent economist to make that case – the kind of economists hired by the Biden team.

They are about to fool us a second time. 

Democrats and the left-wing media will again put forward roads, bridges and treatment plants as the sales points – and again accuse Republicans of opposing such much-needed and worthy projects.  They will ignore and distract from the bulk of the expenditures that do not belong in the Bill – the things to which the Republicans in Congress oppose.

Even as we anticipate the outcome of the so-call Infrastructure Bill, they are about to fool us a third time.

You may recall that Biden initially was proposing a $3.2 trillion Bill to cover a lot more ground – a lot more pork in the old barrel.  But that was too big.

So, the Democrats split the projects into two bills.  You are likely to soon discover that the whole is greater than the parts.  The price tag on the severed second and third bill will likely exceed the $3.2 trillion.

Unless Democrats can abolish the filibuster, it is likely that Republicans and a couple semi-responsible Democrats – such as West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin – will force some cost-saving compromises.  At this point, Manchin appears to be the vote that will keep the filibuster.  But do not expect a lot of trimming.

The Biden spending plans are a fundamental change in American governance.  For over 200 years, there has been a reluctance to increase the size, scope and power of the federal government.  The foundation of American personal freedom is limited government – so sayeth our Founders.

The big-government authoritarian forces on the left now unashamedly promote the glories of big government elitism  — massive spending and more usurping of those rights and powers reserved to the states by the Constitution.  If they fool us on that one, the Republic – and individual freedom, as we know it – will have ended.

So, there ‘tis.

About The Author

Larry Horist

So, there ‘tis… The opinions, perspectives and analyses of businessman, conservative writer and political strategist Larry Horist. Larry has an extensive background in economics and public policy. For more than 40 years, he ran his own Chicago based consulting firm. His clients included such conservative icons as Steve Forbes and Milton Friedman. He has served as a consultant to the Nixon White House and travelled the country as a spokesman for President Reagan’s economic reforms. Larry professional emphasis has been on civil rights and education. He was consultant to both the Chicago and the Detroit boards of education, the Educational Choice Foundation, the Chicago Teachers Academy and the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts. Larry has testified as an expert witness before numerous legislative bodies, including the U. S. Congress, and has lectured at colleges and universities, including Harvard, Northwestern and DePaul. He served as Executive Director of the City Club of Chicago, where he led a successful two-year campaign to save the historic Chicago Theatre from the wrecking ball. Larry has been a guest on hundreds of public affairs talk shows, and hosted his own program, “Chicago In Sight,” on WIND radio. An award-winning debater, his insightful and sometimes controversial commentaries have appeared on the editorial pages of newspapers across the nation. He is praised by audiences for his style, substance and sense of humor. Larry retired from his consulting business to devote his time to writing. His books include a humorous look at collecting, “The Acrapulators’ Guide”, and a more serious history of the Democratic Party’s role in de facto institutional racism, “Who Put Blacks in That PLACE? -- The Long Sad History of the Democratic Party’s Oppression of Black Americans ... to This Day”. Larry currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida.

9 Comments

  1. Ben

    If only the trump administration had passed and signed into law an infrastructure bill that they kept promising during their 4 yrs. That would have negated Democratic Lawmakers from having to tackle the much needed and hugely popular bill and left you to address other pressing issues.

    Interesting you point out large Democratic Cities as recipients of the bill to further your narrative. But facts don’t care about your narrative and frankly, southern red states make up the bulk of Net Government spending. I wouldn’t expect you to acknowledge that though.
    Republicans seemed to cheer the idea of a 2 trillion dollar price tag for trump’s infrastructure plan. Now Republican politicians are largely up in arms about Biden’s plan, even though the rank and file republicans largely support it.
    It seems like your tv may be stuck on one channel. But then again, I suspect there may only be one “news” channel in Florida.

    • Chad

      And yours would be stuck on CNN and yes we all know about the Commie News Network don’t we?

    • Keren

      Clearly you haven’t read the bill, and I suppose you are stuck on one channel too…
      i live in a corrupt Blue state, where stealing is a way of life in government. It’s so bad that the mayors wife has twice been given billions of dollars to study race relations where there is NO evidence of a study being done, and the city and state keep begging for more federal dollars.
      We need a president who is present and doesn’t hide writing executive orders at a rate of the bullet train.
      Nothing in these bills takes care of the everyday American who should be working and not needing to collect government handouts.

      In the end, this will not ingratiate the public to government. Not when we are so in debt, and without our own energy to sustain us without relying on China, and OPEC. Government has caused this emergency, and their only way to stop it is to continue to fuel the fear factor, keep us locked up and masked and hand out money they are printing in the basement of the White house.

      • Anonymous

        Well said!!!

    • NavVet

      Ben I suspect there are only a few things you understand. 1 democrats lie all the time. 2 Democrats are trying to destroy America. 3 Democrats are trying to destroy the constitution in favor of communist way of life. 4 you do not understand but you support all of it. You support traitors.
      Trump would have gotten the bill passed if not for the democrats in congress blocking everything he tried to do.
      As far as the first

      • Ben

        NavVet
        With sentence structure like that, I’m surprised the you scored high enough on the ASVAB for the Navy to allow you to enlist. By reading your post, I would have figured that the Army would be the only branch to accept you.

        Republicans controlled the Senate, Congress and the Presidency. McConnell could have brought the bill up for a vote at any time. He didn’t. There was no obstruction by Democratic lawmakers.
        By design, Republicans won’t govern. Then they can say, “gOveRnMent dOesNt wORk”.
        You say I support traitors, but Democratic voters aren’t the ones waving the Southern Traitor’s flag, nor are we the ones that traitorously tried to overthrow our Government and negate the will of the people.
        One more thing, we want socialism, not communism. I know from your past posts, that you think the two words are synonyms, but that aren’t.
        Nice try though.

        • Eli 7777

          Even Vladimir Lennon said Socialism is the step to Communism. Kamala Harris was associated with the Maoist Communists. Some in Congress were/are associated with the Communist Party of the U.S.A, which endorsed Biden. They work together for the same goal, of a dependent society, which is Anti Capitalism. If it’s Anti Capitalism, it is Anti America. It is government domination controlling industry and every aspect of your life. People are willing to surrender being free to get free money and benefits. . That is what has happened the past year. If the government gives it, they will take it. They raise taxes to pay for their generous debt, so then if people can’t pay their taxes, they take the property. Raising taxes to support 16,000 immigrant children, will stifle a lot of the U.S. economy growth. Shutting down businesses, the pipeline etc. while 6,000 a day cross our borders surely shows a developing issue, while throwing money on wasteful infrastructure projects, unrelated to roads and bridges. Marxist BLM co founders have a goal to continue a power struggle over the police, border patrol and neighborhoods. Meantime these fraudulent leaders have purchased several million dollar homes, while giving nothing back to the neighborhoods, that were destroyed. So now they want taxpaywers to restore them.

  2. Bob

    why not just give all that money to coumo and newsome and lightfoot ??

    that would solve all your problems, right??

  3. Good luck

    Lie, cheat and rob -Democrats Motto.