Oklahoma congressmembers vote for, comment on 'One Big Beautiful Bill'

All five of Oklahoma's members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined both U.S. Senators in voting for the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' this week, with the House passing the mega-measure by a vote of 218-214.

Comments from each of the Representatives below:

Brecheen: Here’s how McCarthy’s concessions will transform the House of Representatives

Here’s how McCarthy’s concessions will transform the House of Representatives

by Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla)

Read the full op-ed at TheHill.com

Many Americans were shocked to learn this month about the concentrated power in the House of Representatives that undermines our constitutional republic. Since 2016, the Speaker of the House has allowed zero votes on floor-offered amendments, unless they were pre-screened. Instead, members of Congress were forced to vote “yes” or “no” on legislation, often being forced to swallow wasteful, pork-ridden provisions that were buried inside bills.  

His last hurrah: Inhofe stuffs omnibus bill with $498M in earmarks

Earmarks: political self-bribery. Vote and influence buying. "The gateway drug to runaway spending," as the late Dr. Tom Coburn used to say.

Earlier, I posted that U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe was the only Oklahoman to vote for the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill passed by Congress. Why was he in favor of the mega-spending bill?

That's easy. Inhofe stuffed almost half a billion dollars worth of earmarks in the bill -- second most of all senators and representatives. If anything was made evident by his time in Washington, it's that Jim Inhofe looooved him some earmarks and pork spending. 

Inhofe only member of OK's DC delegation to vote for mega-spending bill

UPDATE: read my follow-up post, His last hurrah: Inhofe stuffs omnibus bill with $498M in earmarks

True to form, Congress continues spending America into oblivion with the latest in a very long line of omnibus mega-spending bills. Also true to form, the measure passed with some Republican support. Of Oklahoma's all-GOP delegation, only U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe in favor.

In the Senate, 18 Republicans voted for the omnibus bill, 29 were opposed, and 3 were absent. In the House, 9 Republicans were supportive, 200 were opposed, and 4 were absent.

Below are comments from both Oklahoma Senators and all five Representatives. Inhofe's comments, along with his touting of over half a billion dollars in earmarks that he procured in the omnibus bill (apparently the second most of all senators). Inhofe definitely loves him some earmarks and pork spending. Nothing like going out with a bang, right? Good riddance.

Brecheen spearheads letter to McConnell opposing $1.7T omnibus spending bill

Oklahoma's 2nd District Congressman-elect Josh Brecheen has hit the ground running. One of his top priorities on the campaign trail was returning fiscal responsibility to the forefront of congressional action, and he's making good on his word.

Are You Smarter than a Congressman? Take the Quiz and find out!

From Pursuit:

Congress just quickly passed a pair of massive spending bills that package what are supposed to be 12 separate spending bills into two giant omnibuses. Our entire discretionary budget is funded by these two bills (as opposed to programs such as Social Security, Medicare and interest payments that are mandatory). But there’s a whole lot more going on. 

Take our quiz to find out more about what’s in these bills. Once you’re done, you’ll likely know more about it then your Congressman!

Some of the questions featured:

• How many pages are in the 2 spending bills?
• How long did the House of Representative have to review before voting?
• How much spending is included in the two omnibus bills?
• How much military equipment did the spending bill include that was not in the Pentagon’s budget request?
• The administration requested a total of $10.5 million for three regional economic development agencies (the Denali Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, and the Northern Border Regional Commission). How much did Congress give them?

Take the quiz at this link!

Irony: "Motion to Waive All Applicable Budgetary Discipline"

In case you hadn't heard, Congress passed a $1,100,000,000,000 budget deal today. In the Senate, the last roll call vote before final passage was a "Motion to Waive All Applicable Budgetary Discipline".

Oh, you don't say. It's almost funny, in a pathetic, sad sort of way. Drowning in nearly $18,791,750,000,000.00 of national debt, I'd say our government long ago abandoned any pretense of "budgetary discipline"...

Inhofe Earmarks $44.7M in End-of-Year Omnibus

As the Democrats try to pass an end-of-year Omnibus spending bill, Senators are larding up the bloated, $1.1 trillion dollar measure with earmarks. Sen. Tom Coburn's office has done a great job of exposing the vast amount of earmarks in the bill (over 6,700 earmarks) - with a database viewable here.

As usual, there is a great deal of difference between Oklahoma's two Republican senators. Dr. Coburn requested zero earmarks, while Sen. Inhofe's name appears on 42 separate earmarks. Inhofe's earmark requests total over $44.7 million.

Inhofe's earmarks range from a "green fuels" project at TU, to equipment for various medical facilities across the state, to Department of Defense spending. One of his earmarks even deals with the Tulsa river development project that Tulsa voters rejected, and which the state legislature attempted to fund through a bond (first ruled to be unconstitutional logrolling, then passed again in 2009 as a stand-alone measure).

I guess the lesson is if the local voters reject something, get the state -- or even better -- the federal government to pay for it.