The Christmas Tree bill….

….perhaps the greatest wrongs committed in Washington are discovered too-late in what is known as the Christmas Tree bill.  That’s when all the pet projects of all the corrupt lawmakers are loaded onto a “must-pass” bill to keep the government running.  It comes up for a vote—all the bad stuff hidden among the required stuff—at the last minute before the politicians head home for the holidays.

This year, the Christmas Tree bill was that Omnibus spending bill rammed through by Speaker Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi.  Let’s say you’re a lawmaker and you have a bank in your district that wants to confiscate the savings of widows and orphans. Well, you put it in the Omnibus spending bill and everyone votes for it…they have to.  You wouldn’t want to de-fund the military, would you?

That’s the choice.  And so this time—along with dozens of other bad ideas—-the politicians have ended the “Country of Origin” labeling requirements.  From now on, you just won’t know where your meat comes from….and it’s going to come from some places without any safety guarantees at all.  (Which is different from the worthless USDA guarantees)

We missed it….it wasn’t worth singling out in the news coverage of that atrocious piece of legislation.  In Washington, Speaker Ryan is now praised for proving that he can make the system “work” again.  And all the  easy-answer people are saying “huzzah, gridlock is finally over”…Republicans and Democrats are working together”.  Of course they are….to get their Christmas envelopes from the lobbyists.

Sorry, I’m late posting this.  I was distracted by the holidays.  But, of course, that’s the point!  It’s comforting to know that Washington is “working” again.

Merry Christmas……Monsanto!