Fortes Fortuna Juvat…Fortune Favors the Bold
There are many variations of this Latin proverb, but this specific one appears on the gates of Honor Hill at Ft. Benning Georgia, where US Army Infantrymen receive the venerable cross rifles insignia. The U.S. infantry has two simple words as its motto, “Follow Me”. Those words have true meaning and having been forged in the crucible of combat they are indicative of determined, resolute leadership in adverse situations.
Perhaps the entire House and Senate GOP should attend Boot Camp at Ft. Benning Georgia and be infused with such rigor, resilience. It was the Republican Party whom stated, “Follow Me” by giving us the House, the US Senate, and the White House…and we will achieve our objectives. It appears once again, these were empty, hollow words as reflected in another eschewing of fundamental constitutional conservative principles and values. Yes, another Omnibus spending measure, nearly 1700 pages, who will be reading that? I equate an Omnibus spending measure to a great big pot of gumbo, except it doesn’t taste good at all, but there are a cacophony of ingredients in the mixture.
We were promised that regular order would return. Yet we get more of the same, just as when the GOP won the Senate in 2014 and they presented an Omnibus spending measure to President Obama. Now, let me make myself very clear, in no way do I want the progressive socialists of the Democrat party EVER again to have power in our country. And I am certainly glad we do not have a President Hillary Clinton. But one lesson that I learned from my Airborne Instructors back in 1984 at Ft. Benning Georgia, “if you set the bar low, you will jump low”. Therefore, I refuse to lower my standards, and certainly not my expectations.
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When reading the various summaries of the current GOP proposed Omnibus spending measure I must ask, who won in November? There is immense cause for concern.
Here we have a GOP majority in the House and Senate, and a Republican president yet we are still funding the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, a truly unconstitutional organization still headed by Obama appointee, Richard Cordray. This organization created by Barack Obama has over 1500 employees and a budget of $605M. We are still fully funding an Internal Revenue Service, y’all remember that tax pain from just a couple weeks ago, led by John Koskinen, an Obama appointee, who should be under federal indictment…along with Lois Lerner who is still drawing a six figure taxpayer funded pension.
It is not just those blatant items, our federal government will continue to fund municipalities that are not in keeping with our rule of law, the Constitution. I really do not respect what some Obama appointed judge rules. We are either a sovereign nation with defined laws on immigration, or we are not. The President has the enumerated power to keep this Nation safe, and not appropriating funds to lower governments, states and cities who are violating our laws is certainly an executive prerogative. Funny, I do not recall any Judges ruling against Barack Obama amending the Affordable Care Act, by executive order…not through the legislature.
This Omnibus spending measure will provide a taxpayer-funded bailout to Puerto Rico for mismanagement of their Medicaid program. It provides more funding for an increase of refugees into America, now a broken presidential campaign promise. And most disconcerting, it provides taxpayer funds to a private, not for profit organization that runs a profit – Planned Parenthood.
I sincerely have a problem with an organization such as Planned Parenthood, who has the vision of a known racist, Margaret Sanger, receiving taxpayer dollars for its operations. Just read the writings of Sanger. I have yet to hear Black Lives Matter or any other group declare Planned Parenthood a racist or white supremacist organization. We have federal government clinics for women’s healthcare, why are we providing funding for an organization that sells the body parts of babies they have killed?
Fortune does favor the bold, but what we are experiencing from this GOP majority can only be defined as cowardice. Why such reticence and timidity to stand for something? As my mother taught me growing up, “A man must stand for something, or else he will fall for anything.” Sadly, the lack of intestinal fortitude from the House and Senate GOP leads us to having a nation that is falling.
And yes, President Trump does have a part in this, he is the leader of the Republican Party, and if he signs this Omnibus spending measure into law there will be consequences. We are witnessing a lack of strategic vision from a political party that controls Washington D.C., and its purse strings. Eight years ago Obama, Reid, and Pelosi rammed a trillion dollar stimulus spending package down the throats of this Nation. They were wrong, but they were bold.
We have no definitive way ahead on healthcare and tax reform, two critical issues that should have been introduced early this year. Yes, I read the laundry list of the first 100 days, but ask yourself, if you have 14 hits in a baseball game but no runs, do you still win? In hockey, if you have more shots on goal than the other team but they got the puck across the line once, do you win?
This is about governing a Nation, leading a people, restoring a Republic and it appears that no one has that focus.
The ramifications are evident. The 2018 midterm elections loom and if the GOP is seen as nothing more than a lighter version of progressive socialists, they will lose. And if President Trump appears more apt at hanging out at Mar-a-Lago, delivering campaign rally speeches, and tweeting, he will be relegated to being a one term President. President Trump must realize that unpredictability is a tactic, not a strategy.
There will be a new political movement in America. One based upon fundamental principles and values that reestablishes the right relationship between the government and the governed. It will be a bold and audacious movement, one that will not cower to the whims of self or special interests.
Some may say that I should not take such a critical stand. Sorry, when I was the Executive Officer of the 1st Battalion (Air Assault), 377th Field Artillery Regiment at Ft. Bragg our motto was “Be Bold”.
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