On Friday, March 27th, President Trump took to Twitter to harshly criticize a congressman for representing his constituents and defending fiscal responsibility. Thomas Massie, the US Representative from Kentucky’s 4th district, asked Speaker Pelosi to have a roll call vote on the $2.2 trillion dollars spending bill, which would be the largest of its kind in US history. His motion did not have enough support among his colleagues for a ‘second’, so he was not able to speak in favor of a roll call vote. The four-term Congressman was immediately condemned by everyone on both sides of the aisle, including President Trump, whose condemnation came in a tweet earlier today.
The President’s Tweet is below:
Massie took to Twitter a few hours later to explain the 2 trillion reasons he wanted a roll call vote on the bill, as per the US Constitution. Why would Massie want a roll call vote instead of an unaccountable voice vote? What issue could he possibly have with an emergency crisis relief bill? The 1,400+ page bill passed the Senate unanimously and nearly every member of the House supports the bill. It will inevitably pass – and that is precisely the problem. Whenever a bill is destined to pass with a huge majority, greedy politicians and their special interests stick all sorts of pork into the bill so that they can benefit from a bill that is on the fast track to passage. This massive spending bill was no exception to the pork barrel rule. A large number of special interests got a piece of the huge inflation pie today. Among the many questionable expenditures of taxpayer money in the bill are:
-$25 billion in grants to airlines
-$4 billion to cargo carriers to be used exclusively to pay employee wages, salaries and benefits
-Another $25 billion and $4 billion, respectively, for loans and loan guarantees
-Over $1 billion for Amtrak
-$350 million for migration and refugee assistance
-$75 million for ‘National Endowment For the Arts’
-$75 million for ‘National Endowment For the Humanities’
-$25 million for the Kennedy Center
-$7.5 million for the Smithsonian Institution
(Source: Fox News)
Trump also retweeted a disgusting tweet by the anti-freedom John Kerry, who called Congressman Massie an ‘asshole’. Why is Trump siding with the corrupt Obama official over a dedicated Congressman in his own party?
Trump should ask himself whether the GOP should actually expel all fiscal conservatives and principled actors from its party. Keep in mind that Congressman Amash – a close friend of Massie and another hardcore fiscal conservative – already voluntarily left the GOP roughly a year ago. If Trump successfully pushes out Massie, the rest of the Freedom Caucus could follow his and Amash’s lead. Losing 36 other congressmen – who are among the most popular in the party – could destroy the GOP. Why would Trump want that?
