Laura Ingraham is blasting Republican House leadership over its support for a more than $1 trillion “Continuing Resolution-Omnibus” budget bill she calls “a 1,600 page bad joke.”
On her nationally syndicated radio program Thursday, Ingraham said that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “has managed to please Barack Obama and infuriate the base of the party” on the heels of last month’s significant Republican electoral victory by pushing the bad budget bill to a vote so quickly.
A House floor vote is likely to be held Thursday after the House Rules Committee, chaired by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), reported the CR-Omnibus bill out of committee by a 9 to 4 party line vote late Wednesday afternoon.
Ingraham argued that instead of funding the federal government until the end of fiscal year 2015 in September, Congress should “pass a short term continuing resolution to push a budget to February or March, then get back to work department by department in a detailed budgeting process.”
“This [bill],” she said, “is an act of utter disrespect for the normal course of budgeting.”
Here we are with 1,100 pages not one member of this body has read. What happened to the promise we are going to let the American people see what’s in this bill for 48 hours?
She followed that with an audio clip of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s famous statement prior to the passage of Obamacare in March 2010:
We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.
“John Boehner, of course,” Ingraham said, “and the Republican leadership has basically… thumbed its nose at the conservative base of the Republican party.”
“He pledged transparency,” she continued, “he pledged that once the Republicans were firmly in control… it would be a new dawn for the way we spend the taxpayers’ money, for the budget process… that it would be daylight…this was going to be a new day.”
But Boehner’s promised transparency is now long gone, Ingraham argued.
“What happened just a few weeks after this historic mid-term election?” Ingraham asked rhetorically.
“We have Republicans turning their backs on the very people that built this majority.” The Republican House leadership, she continued, has presented “a $1.1 trillion Omnibus spending bill that is chock-full with pork and giveaways to the left.”
“So much so,” Ingraham added, “that Barack Obama said he was pleased to see the progress on the Omnibus spending bill.”
“This is not representation on Capitol Hill right now, this is misrepresentation,” Ingraham maintained.
Like many conservatives who view the Republican leadership’s support for the CR-Omnibus bill a betrayal, Ingraham said that their support for it will have electoral consequences in 2016.
“Right now I think the [Republican] leadership is pretty giddy…. they’re drunk with their own power,” Ingraham said.
But Ingraham cautioned that their elation may be short-lived.
“They’re going to wish they had our help in two years,” she noted.
“This is a moment of truth [for both Republicans and conservatives],” Ingraham argued. The question for conservatives, she said, is: ” Will you answer their [the Republican leadership’s] call in 2016 when they’re in trouble in some primaries…. when they need the grassroots?”
“There were only about 60 votes so far of Republicans [in the House] who are going to vote against funding the government [with this bad joke of a bill], ” Ingraham said. The Republican leadership thinks, she asserted, that, “a couple of years from now, the base is going to forget about this lamest of lame duck sessions.”
But according to Ingraham, conservatives have good memories.
“We will not forget the betrayal,” she said, “and there will come a time where you will come calling on us. You will need us to help you. When that day comes, don’t be surprised if many of those rock-ribbed conservatives across the country…. will not answer the call to help you because you’ve beaten them down so badly. You’ve betrayed them so terribly…you’re not going to betray them a third time.”
Conservative icon Richard Viguerie is one of many conservatives who agree with Ingraham.
“If any Republican member of Congress votes ‘YES’ on the ‘CRomnibus,’ then they own everything in the bill, including Social Security for illegal aliens, Obama’s pro-abortion policies, and busting the spending caps,” Viguerie said on Thursday.
“Conservatives must stop giving betrayals such as these a free pass in the Republican primary,” Viguerie added. “Any Republican who votes for the CR – Omnibus package should be considered a ripe target for a primary challenge,” Viguerie concluded.
Ingraham also detailed a few of the more egregious spending components of the bill, which she said includes $1.5 billion to Department of Health and Human Services for refugee and entrance assistance. “This money,” Ingraham said “will fund relocation and handling of ‘border migrants’ through 2017.”
In addition, Ingraham said the bill includes “$14 million in new funding for the Department of Education, facilitating the relocation of people who should not be in this country.” In effect, Ingraham argued “Republicans are funding the next border wave.”
All told, Ingraham said the bill includes “$2.5 billion to accommodate illegal immigrants and refugees.”
“At some point,” Ingraham noted, “you do feel like Charlie Brown one more time taking a run at the football…. We go to kick that ball really hard and we land on the ground.”