It is long past the time when the political primadonnas in Washington have been called out for their antics. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky congressman, did it when he demanded members of the House of Representatives cast a recorded vote on the Coronavirus spending legislation. The wailing that accompanied his call for a recorded vote sounded like agonized voices from the Titanic. Listening to the media you would conclude that he had just endangered all of civilization with his reckless “stunt.” And now there are calls for Massie to be thrown out of Congress!
In a media frenzy, reporters swarmed around Massie as he left Capitol Hill and demanded to know why he behaved as he did. He took time to chill out the frantic mob by pointing out that truck drivers and grocery store clerks, and medical personnel and other Americans numbering in the millions are expected to be on the job during this medical emergency. Is Congress exempt from doing its job? Massie had the right to call for a recorded vote and he did so, only to have the power brokers use their own stunt to bury his legitimate request. As Massie asked: why didn’t they want a recorded vote? After all, it was the biggest relief bill in the history of the world! For the deer-in-the-headlights reporters, he supplied the the answer: They didn’t want to be on record voting for the most expensive bailout in the country’s history.
“This bill creates even more secrecy around a Federal Reserve that still refuses to be audited. It allows the Federal Reserve to make decisions about who gets what, how much money we’ll print. With no transparency. If getting us into $6 trillion more debt doesn’t matter, then why are we not getting $350 trillion more in debt so that we can give a check of $1 million to every person in the country?
“This stimulus should go straight to the people rather than being funneled through banks and corporations like this bill is doing. 2 trillion divided by 150 million workers is about $13,333.00 per person. That’s much more than the $1,200 per person check authorized by this bill.”
“It shouldn’t be stuffed full of Nancy Pelosi’s pork – including $25 million for the Kennedy Center, grants for the National Endowment for the Humanities and Arts, and millions more for other measures that have no direct relation to the Coronavirus Pandemic. That $25 million, for example, should go directly to purchasing test kits.”
Why was this bill, as have so many in recent years, not been given the required time for Congressmen to examine before voting on it, In the paraphrased words of Ms. Pelosi in regard to the “Affordable” Care Act: “We need to vote on this bill to find out what’s in it.” For most of us, that seems like a bass-ackwards way of living. But Washington is allergic to being transparent. Just load bills up with special privileges and handouts, put fuzzy, cuddly names on them and pretend America will be saved yet again by the philanthropists on the Potomac.
“I came here to make sure our Republic doesn’t die by unanimous consent in an empty chamber, and I request a recorded vote,” the congressman said.
One of his “colleagues” agonized: “Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), , , , forced hundreds of his colleagues to risk their lives — literally — by flying back to Washington. So what if many of the lawmakers are elderly and at high risk?
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