Usually, the most honesty we get from our politicians in the United States comes in the form of their undisguised vitriol for their compatriots across the proverbial aisle. I was watching a news clip and almost died from a heart attack. “Praise is due to Secretary Brooke Rollins of the Trump Administration,” I thought, regarding what I saw during her statement at a conference on food-stamps and the government shutdown, for it is not often which unadulterated truth comes out of not just the White House, but our government. While standing at a podium that had nailed to it a sign that read, “The Democrat Shutdown," Secretary Brooke Rollins was asked from a reporter,

“What do you say to the millions of Americans who stand to lose their (SNAP) benefits?”

In the news clip I was watching – without any of the usual politician’s egregious pontification or finger pointing which is so par for course you’d think it was middle school boys caught by their parents doing something atrocious who run Washington – Secretary Rollins replied in what I would describe as real humility:

“My message to America is first, the fact that your government is failing you right now. That poverty is not red or blue. It is not a Republican or Democrat issue. It doesn’t matter who you voted for or even if you voted. That if you are in a position where you can’t feed your family, and you’re relying on that $187 a month for an average family in the SNAP program, that we have failed you.”

‘Woah. Is that really OUR, American politician?!’ My thoughts tumbled in shock, until in that same clip Speaker of the House Mike Johnson stepped up to the podium right after her, and to the reporter asking the question like a middle school boy who was trying to get his story straight when talking to his daddy after getting into trouble tried reframing her words:

“She is clarifying, ‘we ‘The Democrats’.”

Ah. What petulance.

As a journalist I did want to know if Brooke Rollins was truly deserving of praise, and if she was actually a politician worth standing behind, so I watched the rest of that conference – and was ever disappointed. The clipped version I saw made her seem honorable and Mike Johnson not so much, but the whole video had her blaming Democrats for the shutdown and the loss of food stamp benefits, and continually spoke at how often the Democrats voted against reopening the government. 

If nothing else is true, it is certain that Mike Johnson and Brooke Rollins have continued to spread the same false narrative about government shutdowns that both liberals and conservatives have pushed. A solid paraphrase of what has generally been said in the past:

 “The other side just hates people breathing, but WE don’t. Our political side is just, and righteous, and is doing all we can to pass this totally cool, fiscally responsible spending bill. Uh, hate them for the ‘tiny’ inconvenience this is causing – not us! ‘Totally their fault, dad.”

I believe there is a misconception about “Funding Bills,” or “Appropriations Bills," which politicians regularly abuse so that they can generate anger and resentment among the American people. In these bills, there are addendums which can be added by politicians called “Riders," which is an additional provision or item that is totally and wholly unrelated to what the bill is about. Such as an appropriation bill which is supposed to be about funding education reform for children, and then a congressman or woman adds a ‘rider,’ which stipulates that the bill should also fund a bank’s bail-out, or even the development of a new diamond-plated highway in Malibu.

There are also bill ‘earmarks’ which is direct funding granted to a politician’s district. ‘Pork-barrel spending’ is when an addendum is added to the bill in question which is funding that was promised for donor projects back home. One such earmark in the past was $17,000 for a “Big foot research center" in Kentucky in 2010.

So, what we get is Republicans and Democrats both hiding frivolous, petty, or greedy and completely unrelated things inside funding bills, and then when they all go to vote on it there is a new passage for something like the (this actual earmark) $190,000 “shark repellant study” in 2024. Then the Democrat or Republican goes, “wow, I don’t want to vote for that. It has nothing to do with funding the government.” They vote no, and the other side then goes to the podium before the American people and clutches their chest, crying foul as they pretend to bleed everywhere.

The short clip on SNAP benefits which actually made Secretary Brooke Rollins look humble, was a false sunrise in American politics.

Earmarks, riders, pork-barrel spending, are all abhorrent when they have nothing to do with the subject of the bill at hand. Even if it is a total-government funding bill, a center for Big Foot and other inane riders do not serve to improve the livelihoods of American people. It is my belief that the more people know about this corrupt part of Congress, the more they will be able to even look at Politicians from their own half of the aisle with disdain when they say, “How dare the other side not fund keeping young mothers alive? They hate people and babies and happiness!”

What a swamp, Washington. 

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.