The dust has finally started to settle from the riots that were sparked by the public overdose death of George Floyd. The city of Minneapolis, the origin point for the looting and riots, has done an assessment of the damages to city properties that were carried out by Black Lives Matter. The Minnesota Governor’s office determined that the American taxpayers owe Minneapolis $16 million as our share of patching up the town. But in hilarious fashion, the Trump administration has replied, “No thanks!”
This is a lesson that the GOP leadership in the House and Senate desperately needs to learn. You don’t always have to pay for stuff with taxpayer money. You can draw a line in the sand and say, “No.”
The Mayor of Minneapolis and the Governor of Minnesota could have stopped the George Floyd riots in their tracks. Every major metropolitan area in the country has had policies on the books for decades on how to quell riots. Democrat leaders chose not to do that in Minneapolis. They let the city burn. Instead of allowing the cops to stop the rioters – which is literally their job – Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told the police to put on their track shoes and run away as a mob burned down a police precinct building.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz sent in a tiny force of 200 National Guard soldiers to try to stop the riots which were citywide in Minneapolis by that point. Just 200 troops. That’s such a tiny force for a city the size of Minneapolis. That was about as effective as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to send the “Census Cowboy” into the urban warzones in her city, to encourage people to fill out their census forms. (If you haven’t seen the Census Cowboy video on YouTube yet, just… wow.)
It eventually took 15,000 National Guard troops alongside Minneapolis police to stop the riots, because Democrat leaders didn’t act swiftly and decisively when it would have made a difference. And now here they come with their hands out demanding money from you and me, expecting us to pay for their bad decisions and failed leadership.
Saying “No” to requests for taxpayer money is a concept most of the House and Senate GOP leaders simply don’t understand. But it’s time for them to learn.
Think back to the fight over Obamacare. Not the fight in which Democrats passed it against the will of the American people – but the fight to derail the unconstitutional health care unionization “law.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and a handful of other fiscal conservatives mounted an effort to “defund” Obamacare. In 2013, as the implementation of Obamacare was set to kick into high gear, Sen. Cruz wisely asked, “Why don’t we just not pay for this?”
Democrats had a 51-seat majority in the Senate that year. The House was under Republican control, and it already voted to fully fund Obamacare under House Speaker John Boehner’s failed leadership. Cruz would have needed to convince 41 of the 49 Republican Senators to not pay for Obamacare in order to prevent its implementation.
But most of Ted Cruz’s Republican “allies” in the Senate were baffled by the attempt. John McCain called Cruz’s supporters “terrorists” for wanting to defund Obamacare. And no one was more confused by the concept of fiscal conservatism than Mitch McConnell.
“I don’t know what they hope to achieve,” said the truly befuddled McConnell. “It’s the law.”
Supreme Court Justice John Roberts had said so! It was the law – therefore, Congress had to appropriate the money from the taxpayers to implement Obamacare!
The concept of not paying for something wasn’t the least bit confusing for the average taxpayer. It’s pretty simple, really.
You go to the store. It says “Eggs” on your shopping list. You do not buy eggs. You go home. Voila! There are NO EGGS IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR!
Likewise, if the GOP had discovered their spines and refused to actually pay for Obamacare’s implementation, there would have been NO OBAMACARE despite “Obamacare” being written on a piece of paper. It’s not that difficult a concept.
By refusing to fork over $16 million to help Minnesota clean up its own mess, Trump is sending a powerful signal to voters. Law and order matters. Leadership matters. If you elect Democrats, you’re going to pay a price for that and it’s not the American taxpayers’ responsibility to pay that price. It also sends a message to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other dumps where Democrat “leaders” allowed BLM to burn their cities down. You wanted it. You pay for it.
And if they don’t want to have to pay for stupid stuff like this in the future, it’s time for taxpayers in urban areas to start voting differently.
