One of our favorite times of year is Senator Rand Paul's annual Festivus 'Airing of Grievances' about the pork in federal spending bills. Last Christmas, Paul exposed millions of dollars of spending Congress authorized for -- among other things -- feline cardio studies ... in Russia, a 'monkey island' for the NIH, and a transgender monkey study for Tony Fauci. What is it with Washington and monkeys?
Wait ... don't answer that.
But Dr. Paul is not alone in Washington as a spending hawk. Each year, he also names the (far too few) elected officials who join him in opposing wasteful and corrupt spending that gets crammed into omnibus bills.
And someone he always names is Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie. This week, after the Senate released a series of mini-omnibus bills, 'Sassy' Massie showed us why he is a kindred spirit with Paul through a series of tweets that not only address wasteful spending but also the corrupt machine in Washington that enables it time and time again.
This inexcusable misuse of taxpayer dollars is what happens when bills like this week’s mini-omnibus are written behind closed doors with pet projects inserted to buy the votes of Senators and Representatives. https://t.co/ZUwSygJxxv
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 5, 2024
The tweet Massie is quoting here is from Libs of TikTok, who showed the horrible details of an earmark for Pennsylvania, requested by Senators Casey and Fetterman, which ostensibly funded an LGBT 'community center.' As Libs of TikTok exposed, what the center actually does is organize fetish and kink parties.
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And the Senate asked for $1 million for this 'community center.'
There’s a $1,000,000 earmark in the omnibus bill for an LGBTQ center where people have bdsm sex parties.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 6, 2024
After @libsoftiktok & I exposed it, the earmarks’ sponsor wants to remove it from the bill.
There’s just one problem, it’s stuck in the bill we are voting on this week!🤦♂️ https://t.co/R28hWWjXbk
This brings an entirely new meaning to “whipping a bill.” pic.twitter.com/dozaqRYnFO
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 6, 2024
There is good news on this earmark, though. Thanks to Chaya Raichik and Massie's exposure, the Senate took a nearly unheard-of action: it actually voted to strip out the earmark. Fetterman even withdrew his support (one has to wonder if he ever knew what he was sponsoring in the first place).
The Senate voted last night unanimously to remove the earmark for funding s*x k*nk parties. Removing an earmark 24 hours before a vote is unprecedented. This is HUGE https://t.co/QDYyW6DpVy
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 6, 2024
But, like we said, that almost never happens. And it wouldn't have happened this time if Raichik and Massie had been silent about it.
Massie also takes issue with another component of the spending: undesignated funding.
NIH funded the creation of the COVID virus. We are voting on a bill to give them more money tonight. The bill contains money for cancer research, which I don’t oppose, but I will not vote for a standalone bill to give more money to the agency that bankrolled creation of COVID.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 6, 2024
Of course, this is an intentional tactic. Just give NIH a huge pile of money and don't tell them what they can use it for. Then, when representatives like Massie oppose it, their detractors will shout, 'WHY DON'T YOU SUPPORT CANCER RESEARCH, YOU MONSTER?'
But Massie doesn't play that game. Nor should he.
Of course, there is also the seemingly silly funding ... that is actually quite nefarious (or at least potentially so).
🚨 Hidden in this week’s Omnibus:
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 6, 2024
Lobbyists got $15 million dollars to implement ELECTRONIC TRACKING of all cattle in the U.S.
No law authorizes this!
It will be used by the GREEN agenda to limit beef production, and by the corporate meat oligopoly to DOMINATE small ranchers. pic.twitter.com/jNsmDcxUGT
Notice how it is written. The electronic tags are needed to 'comply' with a federal animal disease traceability rule. Except that rule was enacted years ago and there was no need for federally funded electronic tags to comply with it.
Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Chip Roy joined Massie in calling this earmark out.
U.S. citizens have survived and thrived for two-and-a-half centuries without centralized electronic tracking of cattle.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) March 6, 2024
And yet the #SchumerMinibus spends $15 million on just that — electronic tracking of cattle.
Please spread the word to help us stop this bill. https://t.co/ym0ZpPN217
The #SwampOmnibus chalking up all the wins… so, we can fund THIS, but can’t defund the parole policies that lead to dead Americans? https://t.co/KTtqScYwXZ
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) March 6, 2024
And don't think that Massie reserves his condemnation for just Democrats. He saved one of his best tweets this afternoon by calling out EIGHT earmarks totaling $34 million that were all put into the bill -- with no vote on them -- by a certain Republican senator.
Recognize the name?
One Republican Senator gets 8 earmarks in the omnibus today.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 6, 2024
No one voted to add these and no one gets to vote to take these out.
We have gone backwards 14 years, to before the 2010 Tea Party wave.
The swamp is back to buying Republican votes for the omnibus with earmarks. pic.twitter.com/DTUOg2UTPv
Lindsey Graham gets $34 million in pet projects and there is nothing any of us can do or say about it.
Given the current federal debt, this is in no way sustainable.
REMINDER: We’re now adding a trillion dollars to the debt every 3 months and that number ACCELERATES from here.
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) March 6, 2024
The fiscal crisis is coming and it is coming in your lifetime and it will forever alter our way of life.
Remember that as you watch them loot the treasury. https://t.co/fh77MEymAe
Graham doesn't care. And far too many Republican senators seem to be with him in not caring. After all, it won't affect them.
Aunt Bea raking in the pork. https://t.co/CsgJi0lCoB
— john jackson (@pvtjokerus) March 6, 2024
'Aunt Bea.' LOL. That was funny. (Sorry, sometimes you just have to laugh at how corrupt they all are.)
There should never, ever be another omnibus bill. Ever. It’s all about hiding corruption. 🚫 https://t.co/oGfBO1etFK
— Betsy Tanner (@BetsyTanner11) March 6, 2024
To be clear, the main problem that Massie is calling out here is not necessarily that earmarks exist. As we mentioned before, federal spending SHOULD be specific and directed.
No, the problem is, as Massie and others pointed out, that these earmarks are created and inserted behind closed doors, with no transparency and no vote. And they can only be removed under extraordinary circumstances (like if they are funding a fetish/BDSM club in Pennsylvania).
The other problem is that there are far too few elected representatives in Washington like Massie, Paul, Roy, and Lee who will pay any attention to these. Most in Congress just demand the bills be passed while fearmongering about the horror of a potential government shutdown.
The result? Unlimited and out-of-control earmarks.
Looting of the federal treasury and fleecing of taxpayers are out of control in this omnibus.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 6, 2024
Chuck Schumer managed to secure 170 earmarks in 6 combined bills:
THUD - 76
Milcon VA - 1
Interior - 56
E&W - 6
CJS - 18
Ag - 13
Most have no federal nexus or constitutional basis. pic.twitter.com/GcfB5hpDV2
In case you were wondering, those four screenshots alone show more than $55 million in earmarks just from Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand alone. And many of those earmarks are for local improvements, which the federal government should not be funding. Others are for colleges with multi-billion-dollar endowments that absolutely do not need federal money. And so on, and so on ...
If you weren't convinced that Washington is a giant grift at our expense, Massie's tweets should remove any doubt.
Thomas Massie is a rancher. He also is an engineer with Bachelor's and Master's degrees from MIT in electrical and mechanical engineering. Yet he often explains these issues in the simplest of language that anyone could understand.
In less than 30 seconds, I explain to Congress what causes inflation: https://t.co/DOxH3h1w9F
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 5, 2024
What seems perfectly clear is that we need fewer career politicians in Washington and more people like Sassy Massie.
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