Omnibus. One word that no one knows the meaning of nor really asks about. More importantly, what is the meaning of this word, and how does it affect you?

An Omnibus or Omnibus Bill, is a piece of legislature that is filled with smaller appropriation bills that authorize the use of, in this case federal, funds for use. Omnibus Bills are so named because it is a singular over bloated bill filled with various appropriation bills that are presented under the guise of being one bill, thus only requiring one vote in each house of Congress. The packaging of such appropriations bills into one gargantuan bill allows for politicians to sneak in funding for various causes without question or debate on the matter.  

Most recently, Congress passed a Omnibus Bill in order to prevent another government shutdown resulting from the lack of an approved federal budget. This is very bad news for the country.

The main issue with this bill is the debt. The government obviously has a spending problem, shown via the twenty trillion dollar debt. This will be severely increased by the omnibus bill which is projected to create an additional $1.3 trillion in debt. Thus, the national debt will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $21 or $22 trillion (approximately). This is bad for the nation because this means that it is getting less and less likely that the debt will ever be paid off and increases the possibility of default. This also reveals the bigger problem of fiscal responsibility within the government.

The people we choose to run our government are chosen to be responsible representatives of the people. However, the passage of this bill shows a total lack of fiscal responsibility. This bill completely obliterated discretionary spending caps.This bill just hands out government funding to various programs without any kind of review. For example, in our own state there are provisions to increase government funded projects from million dollar projects up to billion dollar projects. More interesting is why is this increase happening?

The real answer…nobody knows. Better yet, it will never be argued on the floor of either house of Congress. The rapid manner in which this bill was prepared and passed allowed for anything and everything to be passed without question. Not one congressman could tell you every provision that was in the bill. Except maybe Rand Paul who tweeted out some of the terrible provisions of the bill including funding for border security…in other countries.

The passage of the Omnibus Bill was a sad moment for the country. It showed how irresponsible the government is with money. Not just money, but your money, your parents money, your neighbors money, your teachers money, and with everyone’s money. As a result (most likely) the government will turn around and raise your taxes in order to fund their boorish spending.The government must get their spending under control not just for the good of the nation, but also for the good of the people.