{"id":1807838,"date":"2023-01-17T06:19:42","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T11:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1807838"},"modified":"2023-01-17T06:22:31","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T11:22:31","slug":"congresss-4155-page-omnibus-bill-is-a-symbol-of-american-decadence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congresss-4155-page-omnibus-bill-is-a-symbol-of-american-decadence\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress\u2019s 4,155-Page Omnibus Bill Is a Symbol of American Decadence"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcongresss-4155-page-omnibus-bill-is-a-symbol-of-american-decadence%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1807838&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>A few Republican senators made a shuffle before a crowd of reporters, ready to spew fiery polemics about the year-end Omnibus bill. The bill, which was eight-ream in absurdity, sat on a cart wheeled before the five-senator assembly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDANGER: $1.7 trillion of\u00a0hazardous debt\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/government\/congress\/17t-omnibus-bill-stuffed-pork-and-gop-lawmakers-should-oppose-it-conservatives\">read one<\/a> of the mock-hazard signs\u00a0decking the cart. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul declared this bill an\u00a0\u201cabomination,\u201d\u00a0while Utah Senator Mike Lee skewered the unseemly pressures to freeze it into law by\u00a0proclaiming the process \u201clegislative\u00a0barbarism.\u201d<\/p>\n[embedded content]\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Every year it happens with textbook\u00a0repetition: Washington\u00a0politicians\u00a0procrastinate in\u00a0releasing a colossal expense\u00a0prospectus for the following\u00a0year\u00a0which unfailingly runs\u00a0thousands of pages, requests billions of dollars,\u00a0and is granted mere\u00a0hours of scrutiny before being thrust to a congressional vote. This is a partisan-intimidating and shrewd slandering process. Democratic politicians offer peoplesy pleas to help struggling Americans. That is, of course, what the bill is expected to accomplish. Most Republicans cave to its smothering inevitability; a\u00a0minority\u00a0bitterly protest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0omnibus bill earns\u00a0its name from its practice of absorbing a collection of smaller bills into one vote. You\u00a0might be tempted to call this government efficiency, but think again. In reality, it\u2019s the gateway of legislative sloppiness and\u00a0profligacy. And you might be tempted to believe Washington\u2019s Christmas tradition is paternal benevolence for the common man but this too is a smokescreen. They would not bankrupt the country if our political leaders actually looked after our future as responsible stewards. They would not allow dozens of silly congressional pet initiatives to be incorporated into our legislative initiatives. They wouldn&#8217;t make a mockery out of the political process by requiring that bills be approved after a few hours of review. They would not spend money in a sexy way <em>We did not have<\/em>. They would not knowingly funnel funds to any country bureaucratic who is hungry. They wouldn&#8217;t insult American taxpayers by degrading our currency, inflating our debt and covering it all with a veneer of Progress and charity. This indictment, however grim and apocalyptic it may seem, is still the bitter truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Desensitization\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>As Americans, we\u00a0have become\u00a0numb to the\u00a0money-gobbling maneuvers of the\u00a0bureaucratic machine. We hardly flinch at billion-dollar price\u00a0tags, not because we do not cognitively register\u00a0such a\u00a0number as large but because we feel detached from its significance. We\u00a0do not feel connected to its consequences. We don\u2019t even feel\u00a0particularly sure\u00a0about what the spending figures <em>should be<\/em>, so bewildered by the dizzying complexity of\u00a0contemporary American politics are we. We put our fingers to the glass and watch but we cannot seem to stretch\u00a0our fingers out and really\u00a0touch the harrowing reality of a $1.7 trillion bill or a $31 trillion in national debt.\u00a0These numbers are not enough to shake our consciences. Why?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>These are some possible reasons.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Fiscal conservatism is not something that anyone talks about anymore.<\/strong> Republicans love to rhapsodize\u00a0about this\u00a0fixture of their\u00a0intellectual\u00a0tradition but few are those who actually extend this principle from token rhetoric to the necessary scolding and refashioning efforts of current regimes. No matter whether\u00a0they claim democratic or republican status, administrations do a sordid job of expenditure restraint. This\u00a0equivalence between the parties is sobering indeed, indicating that the\u00a0majority of republicans do not know how to defend\u00a0small-government and\u00a0balanced\u00a0budgets\u00a0with any\u00a0authentic\u00a0confidence. You might hear it.\u00a0\u201cfiscal conservatism\u201d sprinkled throughout the\u00a0campaign trail for its old-fashioned\u00a0appeal and knack for attracting votes, but it is no longer\u00a0practiced by those in Washington. Longtime champion of fiscal restraint Sen. Rand Paul has made entreaties for\u00a0years that are drowned out by the\u00a0opportunism and apathy swarming the Capitol.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No one knows why fiscal conservatism is important.\u00a0<\/strong>It is regrettable that the morality of government money was lost. It is not afraid to temper its quantity or maintain its quality because of an ethical agreement with the people.\u00a0Money is no longer subject to any scruples. The modern conscience\u00a0conceives of it as a hollow\u00a0instrument; a\u00a0neutral tool to get from A to B. But what is real money? What is the source of money&#8217;s value? What are its wonderful qualities and what can make it dangerous? These questions are often overlooked by most people.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nobody quite feels the\u00a0consequences of reckless\u00a0spending yet:\u00a0<\/strong>Because we raise debt\u00a0ceilings\u00a0with impunity\u00a0and have thrown that old burden of balancing budgets out the window, we stay disconnected from the ramifications of\u00a0fiscal hedonism. It is hard enough for\u00a0politicians to make difficult\u00a0choices that affect life beyond\u00a0their term limits,\u00a0because\u00a0where&#8217;s the motivation in that? And so,\u00a0money\u00a0becomes this distant, untouchable relic that no one wants to poke at.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>We have lost an emotional response to government spending, i.e. It is no longer possible to discern when government spending crosses the threshold of moral questionability. We also have lost our intellectual understanding of it. An understanding of why excess cannot continue in perpetuity. All this contributes to a massive desensitization, which leaves us dangerously acclimated in an environment that pretends that money is a game and not the beating heart of civilization.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the ways in which\u00a0this unlucky acclimatization has\u00a0occurred:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong> The return on investment is not always the same as what was spent.<\/strong> In\u00a0government, addition is the path of least resistance. Subtraction has poor incentives, can be politically painful, and sounds mean and parsimonious to us Americans who see government as our rightful pursestrings and\u00a0sympathetic caretaker.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Added\u00a0bureaucracy is rarely reviewed or pruned:<\/strong> More money\u00a0inevitably feeds more\u00a0bureaucratic cubicles. Bureaucracy is a curious animal: one that has a considerable appetite for more\u00a0money and workers and administrative projects, but one that also has a deadening effect and leaves decay in its wake. In this way,\u00a0bureaucracy has always\u00a0bizarrely appeared to me as a life\/death personification. If one thing is for sure, it\u00a0will seek to justify its existence and\u00a0once breathed form by taxpayer dollars, will lunge for\u00a0more funds to legitimize its\u00a0continuance.\u00a0\u2028<\/li>\n<li><strong>Law becomes more complex and\u00a0disorienting:<\/strong> As sentences rain from keyboards\u00a0and paper\u00a0churns from the printer\u00a0and more thousand-page legal monstrosities are produced, we end up building on a (new-ish) toxic American tradition of\u00a0unintelligible,\u00a0byzantine law. The less lucid and graspable the law is to the public, the less accountable government becomes\u2014and the more fuzzy the political vision of the masses grows. Do we really know which laws were included in the year-end Omnibus Bill? More\u00a0worryingly still, do our\u00a0politicians even know? Is\u00a0this state of affairs normal? This would be considered a natural process. I would warn against this\u00a0particular temptation:\u00a0the temptation to\u00a0believe that increasing\u00a0complexity is a sign of sophisticated progress, of\u00a0governmental fine-tuning. It isn&#8217;t. It gets entangled with its ferocious demands and chokes under its stifling demands. And it throws a veneer of precision and\u00a0compassion (owing to its seeming charity) over it all. As a\u00a0general rule of thumb, when edicts becomes more profuse\u00a0and\u00a0complex and fail to remain concise and coherent to the public, they are\u00a0unequivocally\u00a0not serving the masses. They are likely serving the elites.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Post-Empire Flavor<\/h2>\n<p>What does one see when they gaze upon a 4,155-page\u00a0bill? A\u00a0symbol of American decadence. A pile of legal jargon so exhaustive its efforts look undeniably\u00a0frantic. This is what inspires blind mania. <em>What are we\u00a0doing and why?<\/em> Are there any?\u00a0<em>principle<\/em> Behind governmental motion Is there any semblance of thought or prudence? Or is the impetus\u00a0merely\u00a0zombie-like\u00a0bureaucratic appetite? No matter how\u00a0comprehensive and caring we\u00a0would\u00a0like\u00a0our present\u00a0government to\u00a0appear, the rot cannot be fully concealed. A eight-ream bill does not signify legislative nobility. It is an insult for the common man. It makes for a\u00a0ridiculous picture of thoughtless excess. It is just <em>Looks<\/em> stupid at first\u00a0glance. This\u00a0intuitive, gut-level reaction is important. It\u2019s the embarrassing truth of our attempts at managerial\u00a0sophistry laid bare. It\u2019s worth mentioning that empire\u00a0decline is marked by an\u00a0apathetic watering-down of principle, by money deterioration,\u00a0and by administrative overextension. <em>Check out<\/em>, <em>Please check<\/em>, <em>Please check<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>It is important to consider the size of your business<\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0larger\u00a0government grows, the more money it absorbs; sure. However, it also becomes less functional. It ossifies, and its vibrant principles start to\u00a0decay under the dead\u00a0weight.<\/p>\n<p>Once a certain threshold in size is reached (and who\u2019s to say exactly where that is) organization lapses into oppression. Vibrancy lapses into atrophy. Decent functionality is lost to chaos.\u00a0What is the lesson?<\/p>\n<p><em>Overreach can lead to a life of misery.<\/em> Congress\u2019 proud 4,155-page creation is a post-empire emblem if there ever was one. Do not be fooled by the legislation\u2019s size: it represents a floundering American system, not a vibrant one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few Republican senators made a shuffle before a crowd of reporters, ready to spew fiery polemics about the year-end Omnibus bill. The bill, which was eight-ream in absurdity, sat on a cart wheeled before the five-senator assembly. \u201cDANGER: $1.7 trillion of\u00a0hazardous debt\u201d read one of the mock-hazard signs\u00a0decking the cart. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[10850,4123,5458,10729,15178,7991,3819,15177],"class_list":["post-1807838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-4155-page","tag-american","tag-bongino","tag-congresss","tag-decadence","tag-omnibus","tag-report","tag-symbol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1807838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1807838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1807838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1807838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}