Conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh on Friday expressed exasperation that Congressional Republicans had pushed through a $1.1 trillion spending bill that funds a host of Democratic priorities–from Planned Parenthood to President Obama’s immigration agenda–concluding that Jeff Sessions may be “the only conservative left in Congress” because he was one of the few senators sounding the alarm in advance of the vote.
“The country was just sold down the river again by your Republican Party,” Limbaugh intoned.
Many Republicans who voted in favor of the bill said it was the only alternative to “shutting down the government,” a common refrain as the deadline to pass an appropriations bill approaches. Limbaugh said Republicans were “scared to death” of being accused of shutting down the government, and as a result were willing to cede the “power of the purse” to the White House.
“Who runs this place?” asked Limbaugh. “Who has the majority of seats in this place? Ditto over in the Senate. What is this? Why does the clock always run out on an end-the-of-the-year budget deal when everybody knows months in advance the end of the year budget deal is coming up? How in the world does any of this happen?”
“Maybe that’s a rhetorical question because this is what the Republicans wanted the end result to be,” he continued. “The proof of that is the excuses they’re offering. They don’t have the temerity to say, ‘Hey we love this. This is what we want. This is great for the country. We have bipartisan agreement here.’ I mean, why aren’t they doing that?”
Limbaugh said the atmosphere among Republicans in Congress has reached a point where any conservative who calls attention to GOP leadership’s unwillingness to stand up to the President and Congressional Democrats is ostracized.
“And of course when they’re called on it, naturally those of us who criticize it are going to be pointed to as the problem,” he said. “Why is the only Republican in all of Congress who is complaining about this
Sen. Jeff Sessions? Well, yeah – Cruz is, Rubio did somewhat. Jeff Sessions is really the only guy standing up and complaining about it, warning before it happened, trying to alert people what’s on the verge of happening. Is Sessions the only conservative left in Congress? What happened to all those that were elected in 2010, 2014? I mean they’re there but clearly the leadership is running the show here.”
Sessions had warned prior to voting on the omnibus spending bill that it would, among other things, fund Sanctuary Cities, the President’s refugee expansion, and quadruple a controversial foreign worker program replacing Americans – all during a time of increasing concerns about threats to U.S. security and finances.
“At a time of record immigration – with a full 83% of the electorate wanting immigration frozen or reduced – the GOP-led Congress is about to deliver Obama a four-fold increase to one of the most controversial foreign worker programs,” Sessions said. “The result? Higher unemployment and lower wages for Americans.”
Audio of Rush Limbaugh discussion the vote and Sessions’ warnings can be heard on Breitbart.
