Congress is a mess.

When Congress is handing out money, the battle is over who gets the credit. Today, it’s a different battle: who gets the blame.

You may remember that the House voted to fund the Dept. of Homeland Security more than 40 days ago. The bill went to the Senate where 60 votes, not a simple majority, is needed to pass a bill. Democrats refused to fund DHS because they hate ICE. But ICE was already funded for ~3 years. So, no change for the component of DHS they hate. But no pay for TSA meant total chaos for airport security. And no pay for the Coast Guard, FEMA and Secret Service either.

Last week, somehow in a middle-of- the-night vote, the Senate passed something. Not sure what changed, but the House Republicans refused to accept the Senate version.

Instead of working on a compromise, they all went home. Not for a weekend. For two weeks!

So, President Trump took the matter of ridiculously long lines at airports into his own hands (maybe like a King?). He ordered the new Secretary of DHS, Markwayne Mullin, to pay the TSA agents. Now, as I joked on Facebook, it didn’t take Sec. Mullin long to use common horse sense and find the money. As a recent Senator he knows that each Senator has an average of about $4 million in their “office account.” With 47 Senators voting against funding for DHS, that totals almost $200 million. Commandeering those accounts should be enough to keep TSA agents on the job. And we’ll see how those anti-ICE Senators and their staff like going without pay.

More “No Kings” rallies were organized Saturday. A report said the protests cost $3 Billion. I think that’s exaggerated. But the total number of protesters is not exaggerated. Here’s a question Democrat Party leaders need to ask, why can’t we get ten million wildly enthusiastic, sign-waving, drum-beating supporters to attend “pro-Democrat” rallies? How many will spend a Saturday standing along a street cheering for their local, state, and national candidates? Most of the Democrat’s main policies, including open borders, no deportations, no voter ID, ignore fraud, and add taxes instead of cut spending, are supported by only a fourth of the voters.

A friend pointed out that “No Kings” was not actually about Kings. Really? The only King most of the No Kings protesters can name is King Charles of England who has no real power. Recently, two countries that were ruled by a powerful king-like person lost those leaders: Venezuela and Iran.

I wonder how the No-Kings Democrats would react if, against all odds, the “kings” of Russia and China were deposed. Would they welcome success?

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“I have made a comfortable living by telling the truth about public men and politicians. I have had all kind of suggestions and offers to stop telling the truth about them and start lying for them, but, NO, I have gotten by this far on one thing. Why should I change and take a chance of failing?” WA #89, Aug. 24, 1924