Tom’s Sunday Sermon – 3-8-14

In December, I was headed to a dentist appt. and on the radio, Houston congressman John Culberson (R- TX 7) was being interviewed and he was defending his vote FOR the Omnibus Bill, a massive budget funding bill, that feeds, not limits, a big-bloated government. The bill also would fund the Department of Homeland Security (and Obama’s illegal amnesty), but only until the end of February.

“How could you…?” asked conservative radio host Matt Patrick. “But Matt, the CAVALRY IS ON THE WAY!” Culberson was referring to the House increase in Republican majority as well as the new Senate Republican majority.

“The CAVALRY IS ON THE WAY!”   You could almost hear the thundering hoofbeats in the background.  Congressman Culberson also slipped in a mention of his new Appropriations Committee Chair.

This week the president’s illegal amnesty was funded.  The Republicans caved.

Conservative Jazz Shaw wrote, “This should have been easy as pie and it required absolutely nothing from the House and the Senate Republicans beyond a simple bit of cohesion and determination. Eventually the Democrats would have caved and the amnesty blocking party would be well underway. But it seems we have too many weak sisters who are ready and willing to capitulate and sing the same tune as the Democrats.”

Conservative Laura Ingraham added. “We shouldn’t be saying that Boehner and McConnell were defeated on Obama’s executive amnesty. On the contrary, they got what they wanted all along – a clean bill to fund an amnesty program that they support, and that they spent the last few years trying to enact into law. They are officially at war with the base of the GOP. Good luck boys.”

“Republicans should dump the Elephant and Adopt a Rubber Stamp as their Symbol”  — by John Hawkins

How do you think Republicans would have done in the 2014 elections if they had told us the truth about what they intended to do when they took over the Senate? What if they had campaigned on working hand-in-hand w Obama to enact his illegal alien amnesty while supporting his budget priorities, confirming a new Attorney General who thinks everything Obama is doing is fine and promised they would do nothing while he illegally bans ammo, cripples the internet, and lets the EPA run wild? Republicans are even gearing up to SAVE OBAMACARE if the Supreme Court guts the subsidies.

Conservatives complain endlessly, w good reason, that Barack Obama is acting like a dictator. What’s left unsaid is that he’s only able to do it because Republicans in the House and Senate are standing by impotently and allowing him to do whatever he wants. Despite winning two huge victories in 2010 and 2014 by promising to fight against Obama, the GOP has shown nothing but rank cowardice in every confrontation w him. It’s hard to understand how men like John McCain, who showed such great courage in war, can be so cowardly when they’re asked to stand up for America against the Democrats. What kind of Republicans would rather fight their own supporters and constituents than stand up to Barack Obama?

In fact, we should consider ourselves lucky that Obama hasn’t gone even farther, because who’s going to stop him? The Republican Leadership in the House and Senate?

Please.

Barack Obama could declare that he is going to tear down the Lincoln Memorial to make room for a giant statue of himself and Republicans would end up funding it because they’re so petrified the media would blame them for the shutdown that would ensue if they didn’t go along to get along.

John Boehner, Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers are our leaders in the House and Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, John Thune and John Barrasso are our leaders in the Senate. These are sort of people C.S. Lewis spoke of when he wrote, “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

Conservatives all know that our leaders in Congress are yellow; they can’t talk, can’t strategize, can’t tell the truth or do anything else that most of us expect from men worthy to lead. However, the “traitors” part of that quote is apt as well because they just betrayed their constituents, conservatives, and the Republican Party to help Obama implement his illegal, unconstitutional amnesty.

Back in late 2014, conservatives were begging the GOP leadership to pass a short-term continuing resolution so that the GOP would have more leverage after we controlled the House and Senate. They refused to do it, but conservative complaints about Obama’s amnesty were so loud that the GOP Leadership couldn’t immediately capitulate and were forced to do something. So, they declared that the DHS wouldn’t be unless Obama buckled on amnesty and they gave their solemn oaths that they’d fight tooth and nail once the GOP controlled the House and the Senate.

Then predictably, when Obama refused to give in, the GOP Leadership barely put up a fight before they caved in and gave him exactly what he wanted. Mitch McConnell worked w Harry Reid and John Boehner worked w Nancy Pelosi to fund millions of work permits and tax rebates for illegal aliens. They also effectively signed off on 5 million illegal aliens getting Social Security cards and drivers licenses that hey could very possibly use to VOTE in our elections! The GOP Leadership called it illegal, they called it unconstitutional, they claimed to oppose it — yet they fought to fund it! If a judge in Texas hadn’t unexpectedly blocked DHS from carrying out the amnesty, something that could end at any time, Obama would be moving full speed ahead w the blessing of the Republican Leadership in Congress.

Don’t just take my word for it on how the GOP leadership sold you out; listen to Ted Cruz.

“Since December, the outcome has been baked in the cake. It was abundantly clear to anyone watching that leadership in both houses intended to capitulate on the fight against amnesty.” Cruz said, adding, “It was a strategy doomed to failure. It’s an old adage in Washington: Never take a hostage you’re not prepared to shoot.”

“There was no chance, zero, that Republicans were going to fail to fund the Department of Homeland Security because Republicans care deeply about homeland security.” Cruz continued.

“If we had been serious about this fight, and we should have been, the continuing resolution (under which DHS funding expired in February 2015) should have focused on the EPA, or the IRS or the Department of Labor,” Cruz said. “Now, those are departments which a majority would be prepared to allow funding to temporarily expire in order to use as leverage.”

Conservatives so opposed amnesty that the GOP leadership couldn’t pass it themselves: so this was an attempt to help Barack Obama implement it. It was a dishonorable, rank betrayal of conservatism. All members of the GOP leadership along w every Republican who voted for a clean DHS bill deserve to be publicly horsewhipped for what they did.

Sadly, we can’t get away w horsewhipping public officials any more, no matter how much they deserve it, but we don’t have to vote for them. We don’t have to fund their campaigns. In fact, we can primary them, we can protest their donor meetings, boo them in public, leak information that hurts them to the press and undermine them at every opportunity. We can demand that our representatives vote against Boehner and McConnell if they want our support. We can do everything we can within the law to make life rough for them.

There are a lot of Republicans who will vote for anyone w an “R” beside his name, no matter what he does on the theory that he’s better than the Democrat.  There is a lot of merit to that thinking and I have argued for it myself on many occasions, but we’ve gotten to the point where Republicans in DC are taking advantage of it to such a ridiculous degree that it should no longer apply.

They lie to us, they think we’re stupid, they trash groups who represent us, they hold us in complete contempt and then mock us by saying, “Ha, where else are they going to go?” That’s bad enough, but we’re now getting to the point where it’s like we’re being asked to vote for Benedict Arnold on the theory that he’s better than voting for the British.

Difficult though it may be hear, the God’s honest truth is that it’s not enough to get rid of Obama and replace him with a Republican. At a minimum, we need changes in the leadership of the Republican Party in the House and the Senate to have any hope of making progress.

You think we’re going to repeal Obamacare w Boehner, McConnell and their cronies in charge? You think we’re going to crack down on illegal immigration and control our borders? You think this nation will be able to stave off bankruptcy w men in command who can’t lead, can’t talk and won’t fight anyone but conservatives?

I don’t.

I think Barack Obama is on track to fundamentally transform America, not because what he’s doing right, popular, or successful, but because conservatives aren’t willing to DEMAND that their representatives in Congress stand up, speak out and stop him. The time for playing nice w the GOP’s incompetent, ineffective, disloyal leadership in Congress is at an end. The only way the country has a bright future is if the current republican Party Leadership in Congress has no future in politics. 

News, notes and whatever:

• Breitbart — “There are 33,000 registered lobbyists in Washington DC and everyone of them represents one or more clients. All of them regularly journey to Capitol Hill and request special benefits specific to their client’s wishes. Consistently, the disbursed favors prove to be what’s best for their clients, now what is best for Americans.“

• The Oscars’ viewership was off 18% from the previous year and hit a 6-year low.  Of all the best picture nominees, only “American Sniper” is a box office hit. Fewer Americans than ever are watching the Oscars as well as the liberal garbage on the big screen.

• Global warming alarmists will have you believe the polar bear is headed for extinction. Reality is the polar bear population has increased 5-fold since the 1960’s.

• Chicago is reportedly near “fiscal free fall” as their credit rating has been downgraded again. Businesses are fleeing which reduces tax revenue and furthers the tax burden on the fine citizens. What a colossal liberal mess.

• Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) — “the Constitution is fatally flawed.”  Durbin was trying to justify why Obama can act like an Emperor, not the leader of a republic.

• Rasmussen Poll — “Most voters want Congress to ignore Obama veto threats.”

• Vince Lombardi — “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.“

 See ya next week.

Lower spending, lower taxes, minimum regulation – and get government out of our lives. The Conservative ticket. Spread the word. Send ‘em a Sermon!