Saturday, September 10, 2016

Congress is Toast

The continuing budget resolution has destroyed Congress’ power to limit government, by Ann Corcoran, 9/9/16

Neither the Democrats or the Republicans want to limit it!

Readers, you might prefer juicy and outrageous stories about immigrant and refugee crimes, about security screening, about what Trump and Hillary are doing today, about resettlement contractors rolling in your money, about immigrant fraud, about George Soros and his ilk, about progressives (Dems!) changing America by changing its people, but there is only one issue now, as boring as it might be, and that is that the Republican leadership in Congress has sold you out for more than two decades and it is they who are changing America by changing its people by not standing up for you and the US Constitution first!

This is the next installment in my recent civics lesson (I’m learning this too!) in what I hope is not a vain (time wasting) effort to focus your attention on the Republicans in Congress.


Below is an excellent (2013) explanation by author Angelo Codevilla about how Congressional leaders (Rs and Ds) have subverted the Constitution to advance permanent ruling class control over our government and your money! Hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum.

From Library of Law and Liberty (sorry to snip so much but please read this and then continue reading the whole article):

The current battle over whether the 2013 Continuing Appropriations Resolution (CR) should de-fund Obamacare or not [substitute this year’s battle over refugee funding—ed] is the latest instance in which the CR mechanism is being used on behalf of a big government program the demise of which would be certain were Congress to play its Constitutional role by following its “regular order” as the keeper of the people’s purse – a role fundamental to democracy.

Herewith, a brief explanation of how new the CR system of funding the US government is, and how radically subversive of republican government. Important to America as Obamacare’s fate may be, the current battle’s stake is nothing less than whether the people can control government through their representatives or whether government can define its own scope and powers.

Since the Middle Ages, the first and most basic restraint on arbitrary government has been the people’s power to decide how much money the government will spend, and for what purposes. The US Constitution puts it this way: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of Appropriations made by law” (Art. I sect.9). Nowadays however our bipartisan ruling class limits the Congress’ opportunity to approve, disapprove, or modify what the government does, to voting on “Continuing Appropriations Resolutions” – single, all-inclusive bills crafted behind closed doors. Then it cynically asks the people’s representatives: “will you agree to laws no one has read, to programs on the continuation of which you have not voted, and to regulations that haven’t been written yet, or will you shut down the government?” This turns democracy into a choice between tyranny and anarchy.

Until circa 1990, Americans had taken seriously the relationship between appropriations and democracy. House and Senate used to divide the Executive departments’ requests for funds and programs into multiple categories and sub-categories. Then many committees and subcommittees held hearings on each item, followed by “mark-up” sessions in which each would be modified and voted on. Thereafter, the full House and Senate would debate, amend, approve or disapprove them, one by one. This was “regular order” – more or less as described in civics books.

This changed at first gradually in the 1980s, when Democrats (and Republicans) who were resisting the Reagan Administration’s efforts to trim government figured out that individual appropriations bills delayed until the end of the fiscal year could be rolled together into “omnibus” bills. These could be advertised as merely “continuing” the current year’s programs and spending levels. In reality, these all-in-one bills 1) protected current programs from scrutiny, amendment, or repeal 2) were stuffed with new favors, programs, provisions and priorities that could not have survived an open process.…. the Republican leadership, by acquiescing in the practice of funding the government by Continuing Resolutions rather than by individual appropriations has emasculated the most virile means by which mankind has ever limited government.  Continue reading here.

 

And, so here we are again, in the fall of 2016, and Congress is doing the same damn thing! If you are saying, it is too late this year (maybe next year will be a better year if Trump is President) and these mostly globalists we have elected are never going to rein-in (in our case) the out of control spending for the US Refugee Admissions Program, then quit reading right now.

 

But, I say that even if we have not even a snowball’s chance in hell of slowing the flow of our money to this program, we must still let everyone of our Congressmen and US Senators know we are mad as hell about it and we aren’t going to forget what they are doing to America!


At this point I should be linking contact information for you to contact your Washington ‘lawmakers,’ but I won’t because if you don’t know by now how to find them you are part of the problem. Tell them to shut it down now!

Next, more on the House Freedom Caucus and how you are being played! See my tag ‘Where is Congress’ for more on funding refugee resettlement.  Forget Obama and forget the Dems, the power is in the hands of the Republicans in the House and Senate!


See Letter:

Dear State Refugee Coordinator,
As you know, the annual ceiling for refugee admissions will be established by the President following consultations with Congress towards the end of fiscal year (FY) 2016. Although the FY 2017 appropriation and refugee ceiling have not yet been determined, states and resettlement agencies should use a ceiling of 100,000 refugees for planning purposes. The Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) has engaged in discussions with the resettlement agencies to propose expanded or new sites as part of their FY 2017 Reception and Placement Program submission. ORR and PRM will work together to ensure that expansion efforts, including timelines, are well coordinated.  We encourage you to discuss local capacity with the resettlement agencies, and as appropriate, include any expansion or new sites in your ORR-1 and State Plan submissions due August 15th. ORR’s FY 2017 budget request includes funding to support this increase; however, this request is contingent upon approval and the overall availability of funds.  
We also expect significant growth in the placement of unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) through the Reception and Placement Program.  PRM’s target goal for URM in FY 2016 is 350, increasing to 500 in FY 2017. The URM Program’s capacity will need to increase quickly to serve the increasing number of URMs, and we ask existing programs to consider expansion options.  If you do not have a URM Program and are interested in opening a new site, please work closely with ORR and the resettlement agencies (LIRS or USCCB) in developing a proposal for consideration. The resettlement agencies will submit their proposals to PRM on May 20th. Please consider the needs of these vulnerable children as you plan for overall capacity for next year.
If you have questions about capacity or your ORR-1 submission, please contact your Regional Representative. If you have questions specific to the URM Program, please contact your URM Analyst.
Thank you in advance for your assistance. 
Sincerely,
Robert Carey, Director
Office of Refugee Resettlement
Last Reviewed: April 21, 2016

Comments

I have no faith in the Congress to stop refugee resettlement in the US. Trump will need to win in November and go back in to these issues to clean up the mess.  If we want to change the policies, we need to change the people who make the policies. This can be done with honest voter polls on issues to identify the will of the people. Then we take those poll results and beat politicians over the head with them.  Their replacements should be exhaustively vetted on these issues and then voted in to take their seats.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

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