Congress is hard at work raising your taxes and increasing inflation, by preparing to vote on a massive $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. The obvious pork is included as well. The spending includes funds set aside to increasing family planning in locations where population growth “threatens biodiversity.”
Going into 2023, our tax dollars are hard at work.
Though not the longest bill by page length in U.S. history, that goes to the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, it still comes in at a whopping 4,155 pages.
On the brink of a government shutdown, the bill includes $858 billion for defense, including $44 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine, $770 million for federal law enforcement, a TikTok ban on government devices, $950 million to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for strengthening the Strategic National Stockpile, $25 million for the National Labor Relations Board and more.
But it also contains the usual amount of wasteful pork spending.
The bill allocates $1 billion to help poor countries develop green energy policies, which have been disastrous in Europe. This year, the continent may face upwards of 100,000 deaths due to the lack of electricity and heat caused by rolling blackouts.
There’s also a provision that increases family planning in locations where having children is deemed a threat to “biodiversity.”
As Rep. Dan Bishop tweeted, “Malthusianism is a disturbing, anti-human ideology that should have ZERO place in any federal program.”
Malthusianism is the theory that the growth in human population will inevitably outstrip the global food supply. It was first proposed by Thomas Malthus in 1798. Though his doom and gloom scenario has yet to come to pass, some nihilistic scientists still have hope—and apparently so does the federal government.
Given that President Biden is also the “most pro-union president” in history, there’s an additional 9% increase for the National Labor Relations Board to $25 million.
Outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is also getting a building named after her thanks to the bill. At some point in the future, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building will soon become a destination on the latest version of Google maps, if you can get there without stepping on used drug needles or in excrement. The government is also funding $2 million grant for the Nancy Pelosi Fellowship Program.
Retiring Alabama Senator Richard Shelby also is getting a building named after him in his home state, a FBI office in Redstone Arsenal.
The government needs to have a budget, but it should be for running the government, not for funding pointless pet projects.
But the problem is that the government has gotten far too comfortable voting on these desperate last-minute bills, which must go through to keep the government’s lights on. The last time Congress met its budget deadline of Oct. 1 was in 1996.
Will Congress ever get back to a normal schedule and actually govern? That remains to be seen, but perhaps that should be on its list of resolutions for 2023.
