How Did Your Senator Vote?

 The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the national debt. The Senate voted this afternoon to add $1.85 trillion to the national debt in an omnibus spending bill. Eighteen Republican Senators joined all Senate Democrats to pass the huge spending bill with a vote of 68-29.

According to some conservatives, the move by Senate Republicans was a “stunning act of betrayal.” Despite being in control of both congressional houses and the presidency for all of 2022, Democrats rushed this budget bill through before the end of the year because Democrats lost control of the House during the mid-term election. Therefore, any Republicans who voted for it betrayed their party as well as their constituents who will have to pay the bill. Tyler O’Neil explained the situation in his article at The Daily Signal. 

Since 1994, the House majority has changed four times. In each case, the outgoing majority didn’t pass an omnibus appropriations bill during the lame-duck session following the election. In each case, the outgoing majority left the hard work of legislating to the representatives the American people had just elected.

 

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, warned that Republicans would be voluntarily abandoning their ability to hold the Biden administration accountable for the next year.

The omnibus bill would fund the government through September 2023. It includes military funding for Ukraine, a ban on the Chinese-owned TikTok app on federal government devices, and millions in funding for “woke” earmarks such as LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers, a Michele Obama Trail in Georgia, and the TransLatin@ Coalition. The spending bill does not include the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal tax dollars from going to fund elective abortions.

O’Neil quoted Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel as noting that the huge omnibus package includes lots of separate pieces of legislation that would never pass if they stood alone, but they all pass as part of the huge omnibus bill. The eighteen traitorous Republicans are:

Roy Blunt, Missouri

John Boozman, Arkansas

Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia

Susan Collins, Maine

John Cornyn, Texas

Tom Cotton, Arkansas

Lindsey Graham, South Carolina

Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma

Mitch McConnell, Kentucky

Jerry Moran, Kansas

Lisa Murkowski, Alaska

Rob Portman, Ohio

Mitt Romney, Utah

Mike Rounds, South Dakota

Richard Shelby, Alabama

John Thune, South Dakota

Roger Wicker, Mississippi

Todd Young, Indiana

 

Three Republicans did not vote:

John Barasso, Wyoming

Richard Burr, North Carolina

Kevin Cramer, North Dakota

 

Four Republicans who had previously voted to advance the bill switched their votes to oppose it:

Chuck Grassley, Iowa

Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi

Marco Rubio, Florida

Tommy Tuberville, Alabama

I was not surprised to see that my liberal Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski voted for the omnibus bill, but I was sort of surprised to NOT see the name of my other Senator Dan Sullivan. There is no doubt in my mind that Murkowski is Republican in name only because she normally votes with Democrats. However, I am still trying to determine if Sullivan has the spine to stand up for America. How can anyone believe that adding $1.85 trillion more to our national debt is good for America?