Conservatism's
'funding father' blasts GOP betrayal 'I
don't know any other way to say it than that they lied'
Despite resounding Republican victories in statehouses,
governor’s offices, the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, the GOP-controlled House
voted 219-206 Thursday to pass a $1.1 trillion spending bill that many
conservatives abhor because it funds Obamacare and the president’s executive
actions granting amnesty to illegal aliens.
To a veteran conservative political activist it amounts to a
monumental betrayal. “I don’t know any other way to say it than that they lied
to the American voters,” said fundraising pioneer Richard Viguerie.
A conservative leader for more than 50 years, he often is
called the movement’s “funding father” because of his innovative work with
direct mail fundraising. “The first impression they made was to betray the
voters, betray their landslide victory and surrender,” Viguerie said. “They
just absolutely surrendered to an exceedingly unpopular president; so, shame on
them.”
Viguerie, author of the recently
published “Takeover:
The 100-Year War for the Soul of the GOP and How Conservatives Can Finally Win
It,” said the GOP has marked itself as
the other party of big government. He thinks it will now be difficult for
Republican leaders to govern, even with their House and Senate majorities, over
the next two years.
And he says the GOP will pay a price. He expects a flurry of
conservative primary challengers in 2016.
“I think you’re going to see the highest percent of
Republican members of Congress challenged in primaries that we’ve ever seen in
the history of America,” he said.
The spending bill is dubbed a “CRomnibus” because it
combines a typical omnibus spending bill with a continuing resolution, or CR.
The bill will fund most of the government through the coming year, but it will
only fund the Department of Homeland Security through February.
The CR apparently was intended to give Republicans another
chance to stop Obama’s executive amnesty two months from now.
However, Viguerie believes GOP leadership included the
provision to appease the conservative base.
“That’s probably just a sop thrown to the conservatives,” he
said. “It’s clear that the Republican leaders … want amnesty to go away. They
want to give amnesty to 11 million illegal aliens and get that off of their
desk.”
The CRomnibus bill appeared to be in danger of failing after
it barely passed a procedural vote Thursday afternoon. But the Obama White
House joined Speaker John Boehner in rallying support. Under pressure from the
White House, 57 Democrats voted in favor of the bill, which was more than
enough to counteract the 67 Republicans who voted against it.
Viguerie is unmoved by those who call the bill a compromise.
He thinks it is simply a continuation of decades of government growth. “When
Republicans and Democrats talk about compromise in Washington, that’s code for,
‘We’re gonna grow the government, maybe not as much as the Democrats want,’” he
said.
Democrats opposed the bill because of planned changes to the
Dodd-Frank financial reform law to ease restrictions on banks. That led to the
absurdity of liberal Democrats, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and
conservative Republicans, such as Rep. Michele Bachmann, joining together in
opposition to a bill that moderates in both parties supported.
Viguerie expects more of the same in coming years because
the ideological left and right are both opposed to crony government. “We saw
last night where the inside party and the outside party got together to feather
their own nest, and principled liberals and principled conservatives are
becoming aware that this is happening, and are going to come together and
oppose this,” Viguerie said.
Ultimately, said Viguerie, a spending bill like this damages
the whole country, not just the Republican Party or the conservative movement.
“We’ve seen a massive effort to plunder the treasury of the country,” he said.
“Congress last night engaged in legal theft. They took care of themselves and
their friends. The GOP and the Democratic National Committee were able to raise
a lot more money. Wall Street benefited. Main Street suffered, of course.”
In previous years, according to Viguerie, this “legal theft”
went undetected by the vast majority of American people. But now, with talk
radio, cable television and an endless array of news websites, more people can
become aware of what their government leaders are doing to them.
“The American people are going to understand very clearly in
the coming days what’s happened here, and I think this is going to make it
exceedingly difficult for the Republican leaders to continue their outrageous
betrayal of the American people,” Viguerie said.
Source:http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/conservatisms-funding-father-blasts-gop-betrayal/
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