In his Dallas press conference used to blame Republicans for not passing immigration reform, President Obama urged House Republicans to immediately pass his $3.7 billion special funding request. Before Republicans do anything, they should ask some serious questions.
1. Is it only $3.7 billion? The president has a long history of using misleading numbers. The Hill reports that the total package is $4.3 billion, which includes $615 million for the Department of Agriculture to fight fires in the West.
While fighting fires is important, tacking on that provision opens the bill up to members of Congress seeing the emergency funding bill as an invitation to tack on some pet-peeve and pork spending.
That’s what happened with the supplemental spending bill after Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey in 2012. Republicans who tried to keep it a “clean bill,” focusing just on Hurricane Sandy damage, were derided, even by fellow Republicans, including New Jersey Governor Christie.
2. Why won’t Obama act before passing the funding bill? Mr. I-have-a-pen-and-phone has not been shy about asserting, even boasting, that he will go around Congress if Republicans don’t do why he wants.
Did Obama wait for Congress to pass an emergency funding bill before sending emergency aid to New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy? Absolutely not. He sent in personnel and other help, and Congress provided the funding, including the pork, later. Of course, Obama was running for reelection then, and he wanted some photo-ops—although he says politics and photo-ops are decidedly not part of his thinking now.
3. Why is the Department of Health and Human Services getting $1.8 billion of the bill? The administration says it’s to cover the health needs of the kids. And that’s because … um, HHS has been so fast and efficient recently?
This is the agency that couldn’t get a website up and running in three years, and still can’t get the backend working; that is plagued with fraud in Medicare and Medicaid; and that has made countless errors in managing people’s information.
More importantly, this is the agency that responded to House Republicans’ efforts to defund Obamacare by redirecting money from various parts of its budget. Do we have any assurance that HHS won’t redirect part of the $1.8 billion for funding Obamacare, or for paying off crony organizations that supported the law? And should we believe them even if HHS officials did provide assurances?
4. How much is for transporting the children back home? Obama’s proposal has $1.1 billion for expanding border security task forces and transportation for the children. Senator Tom Coburn has suggested that the government could fly all of the children home first class for less than $20 million. Does that mean that more than $1 billion would go to border security? Or does the administration plan to do a lot more “transporting” than it’s revealing?
5. Has the president proposed a budget offset for the supplemental spending? White House press secretary Josh Ernest says that Congress generally doesn’t look for budget offsets—the so-called “pay-fors”—for emergency funding bills. That is absolutely untrue; it’s just that Republicans have had limited success getting them included under Obama.
Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz just announced $4 billion available in loan guarantees to companies involved in clean energy generation. Given the administration’s sting of failed “green energy” investments, if Congress does provide additional funding, how about redirecting that DOE money. At least then someone besides Obama donors would receive some benefit.
Under a normal administration, most of the questions wouldn’t have to be asked, but this is no normal administration. Republicans don’t trust the president to tell the truth or to follow the law. That’s why any supplemental funding needs to be considered very carefully—if at all.