by John Fredericks
It’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.
House and Senate passage of the all-encompassing one-size fits all CRomnibus funding package that keeps the government running through September 2015 – except for Homeland Security which has a shorter 60-day cash window – has drawn the ire of grassroots conservatives and activist progressives like an EF 5 tornado from nowhere.
It’s like nothing I’ve experienced in three years on the radio in the Commonwealth.
Calls, texts, emails, tweets and in person conversations (at the dry cleaners, the grocery store, WAWA, walking in my neighborhood, etc.) from our listeners – both Left and Right – is running virtually 99 percent against this bill. In a word: outrage.
It’s non-stop. Average folks seem to have hit their wits end with what they see as a Congress that is internally focused, determined to keep the lobbyist dollars free flowing their way and oblivious to the needs and concerns of a suffering middle class.
And it’s not the funding or the spending I’m hearing about that has people’s gall – it’s the riders attached to this mammoth bill.
The rank and file on both sides of the ideological spectrum tells me they feel “Grubered.”
Many have commented that they believe the way CRomnibus was jammed down the throat of an unsuspecting populace was not happenstance – but rather part of a grand backroom scheme to launch it after the election on the Friday before the shutdown. Retiring Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) said on talk radio the “cake was baked in September.”
Skullduggery conspiracy theories are running amok.
It’s the big business, big bankster, and Wall Street fleece provisions – the TARPist and corporatist crony capitalist waivers and bailout mechanisms– that apparently hit the nerve of many of our listeners.
That and what some on the Right see as the complete sellout on the Fall campaign promise to fight President Obama’s amnesty executive fiats to give five million illegal immigrants work permits and federal benefit eligibility.
But we have experienced these big government-spending bills before.
Why this fever-pitch reaction? What gives?
It’s the boiling point’s cycle of the trough. Big business and big insurance companies feed big government who in-turn fuels big corporatist elites and big money lobbyists who then fund campaigns and in turn feed back more big government – all with your tax dollars.
And the cycle seemingly cannot be broken.
For the first time some may be sensing that they’re powerless to change it. Hence: frustration.
Virginia Votes on CRomnibus
In Favor (Yes): U.S. Reps. Scott Rigell (R), Randy Forbes (R), Bob Goodlatte (R), Frank Wolf (R), Jim Moran (R), Gerry Connolly and U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D).
Opposed (No): U.S. Reps. Rob Wittman (R), Bobby Scott (D), Robert Hurt (R), Dave Brat (R), and Morgan Griffith (R).
For and against: We had Congressman Scott Rigell (R-2nd), Robert Hurt (R-5th) and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on our show on December 15. You can catch their interviews here.
Dogs and Cats Living Together – 2016
The CRomnibus battle produced two huge winners with serious 2016 implications: Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
In one weekend Cruz, left for dead after the last government shutdown as political road-kill, retooled himself as a top-tier GOP candidate for President. His message is simple: he’ll fight for you. Who will Jeb Bush fight for? Illegals, corporate elitists and TARPists? Case closed.
Warrenmania: Catch it.
Eugene McCarthy almost did it in 1968. Jimmy Carter did it in 1976. Ted Kennedy almost did it in 1980. Gary Hart almost did it in 1984. Elizabeth Warren will run for President and upset HRC in Iowa. Then all hell breaks loose.
The Massachusetts Senator has a populist message that resonates with workingmen and women we haven’t witnessed since Huey Long. Count her out at your own peril. If she wins Iowa – which I predict she will – she wins New Hampshire. Then the Clinton military industrial complex unravels and it’s South Carolina to make it or break it. So much for inevitability.
John Moss, a city council member from Virginia Beach, taught me something I’ll never forget: “Checks vote once.”
Thoughts on Ferguson-Garner
Do you feel safe yet?
Pass the Patriot Act. Pass it again.
Give the NSA the power to spy on you and your neighbors.
Let judges give out no-knock warrants like candy.
Condone some nameless, faceless FISA court to hand out blanket warrants, with no accountability, like the British Empire did to its American Colonial subjects in 1770.
Militarize the police. Give them sophisticated weaponry via the NDA surplus act. Look the other way when tanks are in cul de sacs.
Blame video verified police brutality on excessive New York City excise taxes.
Clap for “three strikes you’re out,” then whistle for “lock ‘em up – law and order” rhetoric.
Let the IRS seize your property with no evidence.
Toe your political party line when the IRS targets your ideological opponents.
Let cops download your cell phone information if you’re caught texting while driving.
Defend CIA torture. Let the CIA hack into their oversight committee computers because the Chair is a Democrat. Justify the CIA Director allegedly lying to Congress.
Then wonder why we suddenly live in a society where you cannot question central authority without taking your life in your own hands.
But you feel safe, right?
John Fredericks is a syndicated morning radio talk show host who can be heard on WHKT AM 1650 in Hampton Roads, WNTW AM 820 in Richmond and WBRG AM 1050 and 104.5 FM in Lynchburg. Streaming: Streaming live: http://tunein.com/radio/WHKT-1650-s29343
