Investment in "our future"?

The latest omnibus spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by a ham-strung President leaves my mind absolutely reeling?!  The signing of this Bill into law is the kind of moment when space and time --past, present and future-- collide to create lasting ripples in the ever-expanding universe.  I guess my initial optimism, when Congress succeeded in passing a 2-year budget authorization --something not done since 1996-- a few weeks back, was premature.  Don't get me wrong, I am overjoyed that our military men and women are getting a long overdue pay increase.  Also relieved to see that our decaying and antiquated military is now on a firm standing for a much need reconstruction and modernization expansion.  This new budget, with increased military spending, will go a long way towards strengthening our national security.  That being said, curbing a decline in our military might is only half of the national security equation.  Our nation's outrageous and growing national debt poses an equally dangerous threat to our nation's security.  This is why it is imperative that all unnecessary spending on pet/"pork" projects be zeroed-out in Congressional budgets moving forward [Carly Fiorina talked about this in the 2016 Republican Primary, the need to return to a zero-baseline budgeting to account for where each and every dollar of spending is going].  The time to get our fiscal house in order is long past overdue, and the "pork" spending tacked onto this most recent omnibus spending bill in the 11th hour truly sickens me.  I had hoped for a time that with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate that we would finally begin to reign back in unnecessary spending toward the end of getting a handle on our nation's ever-expanding debt. At the very least, I thought that never again would Republicans pass a massive bill without "knowing what's in it", but I guess the lessons learned from Obama-care were short-lived? Not to worry though, Congress gave themselves a pretty decent pay-raise?!?

Trump should have vetoed this spending debacle and then drug the lazy-inept Congress back to Washington D.C. to clean up their mess.  Surely, the military could have waited another week or two after waiting this long? But then, I forgot how terrible the Republicans are when it comes to playing "Chicken."  And what about those 'humanitarian' Democrats fighting for the rights of innocent children brought into the U.S. through no fault of their own? The Democrats dropped DACA recipients faster than a hot potato when the opportunity to advance their own political agenda --national insolvency-- came around.  DACA recipients and immigrants alike really need take a long hard look at the party that claims to support them.  Thankfully, I think people are finally starting to realize the Democratic party is just using them to get votes in an effort to maintain a stranglehold on power while throwing out crumbs every now again to keep their voting base in line.

Nancy Pelosi was quoted in a press briefing after the Omnibus Bill's passage as saying "This Bill is an important investment in our future."  When what this Bill actually does is saddle our future [our children] with an insurmountable legacy of debt, while pushing our nation ever closer to the edge of insolvency.

If I were President Trump I would call on Republicans in the U.S. Congress to publish a complete list on the "us.gov" website of all the "pork" contained within this monstrous bill, along with the name of the Congressman/woman responsible for the unnecessary addition to our national debt.  The only way to truly clean up "the swamp" is to restore accountability to government.  By publishing this list, "we the people" can see who to hold accountable for unnecessary expenditures and who to vote out of office in the next election cycle.

3/29/2018  Heard today that Congressman Ron DeSantos, of Florida, is working with other members of the House of Representatives to introduce legislation that would amend the U.S. Constitution to allow for a Presidential line-item veto.  This news troubled me at first, mostly because my mind wondered at all of the many opportunities for abuse in the scenario of a full blown line-item veto, but apparently this newly proposed amendment would only grant the President the power veto line-items pertaining to spending. That is to say that this line-item veto would allow the President to put an end to "pork" spending measures tacked onto a bill in the 11th hours, thereby helping to reign in unnecessary spending in an effort to begin getting a handle on our national debt.  Apparently the last attempt to introduce a line-item veto --in the 1990's By Newt Gingrich-- passed with a 2/3rds majority vote.  The problem was that this change was not put forth in the form of an actual amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but rather as a statutory power.  This is the reason the initial push for a line-item veto was not upheld by the Supreme Court.