President Trump and Republican members of Congress campaigned on cutting federal spending, including the defunding of Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities. Yet, Congress continues to pass big spending bills like the 2018 Omnibus legislation ($1.3 trillion) that accomplished the opposite of what Republicans promised on the campaign trail. It increased discretionary spending by over 10% and did not defund Planned Parenthood or sanctuary cities.
The U.S. Constitution in Article 1, Section 7, tasks the House of Representatives with the responsibility of originating revenue bills: "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives." This responsibility includes passing all 12 appropriation bills to fund the various federal government departments, agencies, and programs.
The problem is that Congress refuses to pass these bills, and instead, America ends up with these huge, Omnibus spending bills because House Republican leadership, including Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his lieutenants, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), refuse to advance all 12 appropriation bills for a full House vote.
After Congressman Paul Ryan was elected as Speaker of the House, he said, "The [House] committees should take the lead in drafting all major legislation: If you know the issue, you should write the bill. Let's open up the process...In other words, we need to return to regular order." Regular order means passing all 12 appropriation bills and sending them to the Senate. This avoids the need for an omnibus bill that's often bloated with unnecessary spending.
Instead, establishment Republican leadership in the House and Senate works together with Democratic leadership to bundle all 12 appropriations into one omnibus bill, and it's all loaded with big government "pork" spending. Then, they use the guilt-trip tactic against conservatives, declaring that if they don't vote for it, they will be voting to shut the government down.
The establishment Republican-controlled House failed to fulfill their constitutional obligation for fiscal year (FY) 2018, and it appears they are set to repeat their failure for FY2019.
The U.S. FY2018 ends on September 30, 2018. Therefore, Congress is supposed to pass all 12 appropriation bills by this date to fund the government for FY2019 (Oct. 1, 2018-Sept. 30, 2019). Yet, the House of Representatives has not sent one appropriation bill to the Senate for FY 2019.
If history repeats itself, House leadership will intentionally fail to pass these bills and will allow the congressional calendar to wind down to just days before the September deadline to fund the government. In these last days of FY2018, House and Senate leadership will scare the American people into a frenzy, with assistance from the mainstream media, saying Congress has to avoid a government shutdown. They will try to intimidate and silence the conservatives in the House-forcing them to vote for another huge omnibus bill they've had very little time to read.
President Trump told Congress, "I will never sign another bill like this (omnibus bill) again." Subsequently, it appears the President will have an opportunity to veto an omnibus bill in September, but the blame is not to be laid on the rank-and-file conservative Republican Congressman. Instead, the problem is with the House Republican establishment leadership of Speaker Paul Ryan and his lieutenants.
