Fighting The Cromnibus Spin

Fighting The Cromnibus Spin

Cromnibus: Last week, Congress voted to pass the $1.1 trillion cromnibus bill (by 219-206 in the House and a cloture vote of 77-19 in the Senate). House Republican Leadership, working closely with the White House, managed to gain enough support for this government-inflating spending package that does nothing at all to combat the President’s unlawful amnesty actions. In the aftermath of final passage, many in the establishment are seeking political cover for their bad vote by putting forth a series of senseless and, in many cases, simply false narratives.

CLAIM: The President’s amnesty actions are not in the form of an Executive Order, therefore Congress cannot defund them.

This is not true. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has issued an official Directive to implement the President’s new policy, instructing the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and several other agencies to ignore the law. The services of these agencies are under the control of congressional appropriations. The House is completely empowered to restrict DHS’s amnesty initiatives; it simply chose not to last week. 

For any who doubt that the administration is moving ahead with the president’s policy, DHS is already working on hiring 1,000 new full-time employees at an “operational center” in Virginia to process applications and issue work permits to the 4-5 million illegal aliens who qualify – and “many of the openings were posted the day after” Obama’s speech. So Congress needs to act immediately if it wants to prevent DHS from using any funds that have already been appropriated to implement the president’s plan.

CLAIM: The cromnibus stopped the President from implementing executive amnesty.

This is a lie. This is precisely what the bill did not do. While DHS is only funded through February 27^th in the cromnibus, there was no rider attached to prevent the President from granting unilateral, unlawful amnesty. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) is also mistaken when she says this bill “ended funding for CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services], which is the agency that would be in control of [implementing amnesty].” USCIS has no restraints placed on it by this cromnibus, and is growing its capacity exponentially to begin the process of granting quasi-legal status to illegal immigrants. Executive amnesty is being enacted now. Congress has done nothing to stop it.

CLAIM: The cuts to Obamacare were strong enough to merit support of this bill.

In reality, the cromnibus makes very few—and no significant—changes to parts of Obamacare. While the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) sees a $10 million cut in funding, this board is not even currently operating and is not expected to be needed until a few years—and a few more appropriations bills—from now. The board has not yet received a single appointment. These members are celebrating a miniscule reduction for a team of bureaucrats that does not yet exist.

Another provision of the spending bill reins in the risk corridor payments. However, this change only prevents the use of appropriated funds from going to compensate for insurers’ losses; it still makes room for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to dip into other government sources to bailout insurance companies if need be. A true containment of the risk corridors would insist the program operate on a budget-neutral basis, preventing taxpayer bailouts of any kind. 

These changes do not go far enough and should not be a distraction from the larger spending provisions that are operating on autopilot: the Medicaid expansion and the government exchanges subsidies.

Call to Action: Members of Congress must be held accountable for their decision to fund the President’s executive amnesty actions. The cromnibus sets up another opportunity to defund these policies in the new year. Only through continued accountability efforts and a sustained focus on the fight on the horizon will the Republican Party be encouraged to stand up to the President’s lawlessness. Voters should find out how their members voted and remind them that the new GOP majority will only be successful if it is willing to represent the interests of the people who made that majority possible.