I often get asked why things don’t change in D.C. Why are we so far in debt as a nation? Why can’t we stop spending so much money? Why does so much garbage become law? Why can’t you deep-six the deep state?
The answer to all these questions is simple: there are more members of Congress happy to continue with “business as usual,” and not enough willing to take the hard votes and say “enough is enough.”
What is “business as usual,” in D.C.? It goes like this. Leadership serves up a delicious looking BBQ sandwich with all the fixings. The sauce smells amazing, the pulled pork looks perfect, the baked beans are seasoned just right, and the banana pudding has all the whipped cream you could possibly want.
The only problem is that this beautiful dish is sitting on top of a steaming pile of horse manure.
Still want to dig in?
The recent vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a perfect example. Did it have some good policy in it that would benefit Alabama and our national security? As the only Veteran from Alabama serving in Congress, I’ll be the first to admit that it did. But when you take into consideration some poison pills that were included and some important items that were left out, the NDAA is not as palatable as some insist.
The House version of the NDAA that I voted for this summer was a good, conservative policy bill. It included language prohibiting tax dollars from being used to fund abortion travel pay, sex reassignment surgeries, and drag queen shows on base. It made efforts to hold China accountable, while also putting a stop to funding Biden’s radical climate initiatives and the Chief Diversity Officers that push anti-American rhetoric.
The NDAA we just voted on, which was negotiated by Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell, Hakeem Jeffries and Joe Biden, removed every single one of those great, conservative priorities. Which means your tax dollars will continue to be used to fund abortions and other radical, woke, and wasteful policies.
That’s right. No bacon in your beans or vanilla wafers in your banana pudding! And what was added to this NDAA will leave an even worse taste in your mouth.
Let’s start with another $600 million for Ukraine, adding to the $40 billion your tax dollars already provided to that country. I have voted against every supplemental funding bill for Ukraine because I think we should prioritize securing our own borders. We have terrorists slipping across the border unchecked and fentanyl flooding into our towns, destroying lives and tearing apart families. Let’s get our priorities straight.
This was bad enough, but then leadership decided to add on a clean reauthorization of FISA, the government program the weaponized FBI used to spy on President Trump and hundreds of thousands of other Americans. The FBI will now be able to use FISA warrants with impunity against Biden’s political enemies for another 16 months, right through the next general election, during which President Trump will again be at the top of the ticket. We’re all fools if we think they’re not salivating at the thought.
I may have been the only Alabama congressman to vote against the NDAA, but I’m not the only veteran in Congress who did. Tennessee Congressman Dr. Mark Green, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars who currently serves as the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, also voted no, saying:
“Taking care of our troops is my top priority, but I will not vote for an NDAA that fails to address major problems in President Biden’s Pentagon. We had an opportunity to counter the Biden Administration’s radical agenda -- this was a major missed opportunity.”
Ohio Congressman and former Army Ranger Warren Davidson voted against the NDAA because it “included at least $600 million for Ukraine and an extension of Section 702 of FISA. Freedom surrendered is rarely reclaimed.”
Maryland’s Dr. Andy Harris, formerly in the Navy Medical Corps, said:
"We have a woke military. That's the bottom line. I can guarantee you that Russia and China aren’t using their military dollars to fund transgender surgery but here in the United States we are. They're actually very serious about defending their country."
In fact, at least 17 veterans in Congress voted no on this NDAA.
But back to the point about needing more congressmen with the courage to vote no on these “business as usual” bills. If every Republican had stood strong, voted no, and insisted on a better bill, this version of the NDAA would not have passed. In fact, more Democrats voted for this NDAA than Republicans did. Read that again. The NDAA only passed because more Democrats than Republicans voted for it.
If the only way to get a bill passed through a Republican-majority House is to get a majority of the Democrats to also vote for it, then you can be 100% certain it’s full of unsavory ingredients that will trample your freedoms and spend more of your hard-earned tax dollars on a woke, weaponized and wasteful agenda.
American taxpayers and service members deserve so much better.
Congressman Barry Moore is the U.S. Representative for AL-02 and lives in Enterprise, Alabama with his family. He serves on the House Judiciary Committee and House Agriculture Committee in Congress.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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