If you’re able, forget for a second that the price tag of the omnibus spending package sitting in the Senate is a whopping $1.7 trillion. Any conservative who votes for it will be 1) endorsing Biden’s massive illegal immigration wave, 2) incentivizing deadly Mexican drug cartels making billions off human trafficking and narcotics, and 3) creating a majority consensus for the progressives on a pivotal issue ahead of the next election.
While conservatives are mostly engaged in catfighting during this lame-duck session, the Left have long been strategically coordinating to map out their next moves—one of which appears to be finally securing their party’s Holy Grail: the illegal immigration trifecta—an illegal immigration wave, citizenship, and voting rights for unlawful aliens.
Intentionally, through carefully crafted policies, progressives have created chaos on the southern border, resulting in a record number of illegal crossings this past fiscal year: 2,378,944. (That doesn’t include the estimated 600,000 unlawful aliens who got away.) And it looks like the Biden administration is determined to allow Title 42—a Trump-era policy that allows the government to turn migrants away at the border for public-health reasons—to expire, which will drive even more illegal crossings.
The Left is also totally aware that their policies have given over operational control of the southern border to Mexican drug cartels that are pumping fentanyl into our country, a narcotic that has now killed more Americans than died fighting in the Vietnam War.
Yet they don’t care. Conservatives are, on the other hand, committed to securing the border because doing so is essential to preserving national sovereignty and the rule of law. By virtually any definition, a country without borders isn’t a country. But because the Right does care, the Left have significant leverage. They know that the worse the situation becomes, the more power they’ll have as we panic.
So let it sink in that the progressives are perversely incentivized to deepen the crisis. That means they will not stop until they have wholly eroded every means of protecting our border.
Sure enough, as I suggested above, there are always enough on the Right to take the bait. We are seeing that play out right now in the Senate, where the weak-kneed conference is poised to give the Schumer-Pelosi-led Congress what amounts to a blank check.
After more than 20 years in Washington, I’ve witnessed this slow-motion trainwreck several times. Progressives load up a spending bill with lots of money for “border security,” but, once the bill has passed, the money actually ends up being funneled to constituents, namely progressive non-profits that organize illegal border crossings, transport unlawful aliens across the country, and sign up these aliens for the full spectrum of government handouts.
Over in the Senate right now, the Left are working with “responsible” members of the Right to finalize an omnibus in return for the pinky promise of border security at some point in the nebulous future. Once more, the money in the spending bill will do nothing but make it far easier to illegally cross the southern border and further pad the coffers of Mexican drug cartels that charge up to $10,000 to traffic a single person.
True conservatives on the Hill will try, as they should, to block this terrible spending bill. That will inevitably ignite an outcry from progressives, the mainstream media, and, of course, “responsible” conservatives. Yet these true conservatives should be even more confident going into battle now recognizing that the American people are on their side.
A majority of American voters, 55 percent, want the newly elected Congress in 2023 to decide government funding, according to a recent poll by Scott Rasmussen’s RMG Research. Further 73 percent of voters believe that it is either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that the omnibus of this lame-duck Congress will include “wasteful spending” and “favors to special interest groups.” The American people know the score.
Republican leadership is, for all intents and purposes, doing nothing. Progressives are skillfully moving the chess pieces into place. Meanwhile, conservatives are frantically trying to stop the madness. Unfortunately, progressives will likely get a major victory. Still, there’s no reason any conservative in Congress should offer them a helping hand.
Jim DeMint is a former U.S. senator representing South Carolina and the chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute. Follow @JimDeMint