As the vote on the Rule to bring the $1-trillion-plus funding bill to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives was about to start yesterday, I and many of my fellow conservatives were still burning up the phone lines to Republicans, saying “NO”!  This is a paraphrase of the way one of my calls went:

Congressional Office: This is Congressman Robert Wittman’s Office.

Me: Hello, I’m not from your district, but I am active in Republican precinct work and have been a contributor to Republican candidates in several states.   I would appreciate it if you would give my message to Congressman Wittman that grassroots Republicans are asking him to vote “No” on the Rule.  It makes no sense to us why the Republicans in the House would choose to severely limit their options available after January 2015 with a larger House majority and a Republican-run Senate.  Why would they want to tie up their own hands until well into 2015 by funding everything President Obama wants now – amnesty and Obamacare?

Congressional Office: (brusquely) The president is getting everything he wants...what he wants is the Republicans fighting each other.  This is going to pass.  (click)

Minutes later, Congressman Wittman was one of those who voted in favor of the Rule that allowed the bloated Cromnibus bill to come to the floor for a vote. 

Hours later, when the vote on the actual funding bill took place, lo and behold!  Congressman Wittman was a changed man.  He voted against the trillion-dollar monstrosity. 

Now, he can tell his constituents in Virginia’s First District that he opposed the bill that will fund Obama’s executive amnesty more generously than Obama ever hoped for, as well as provide continued funds for Obamacare.  By the end of February, which is when the funding for Homeland Security will be up for another vote, Obama will have the amnesty process well in place, and we will be told that it is impossible to retrench.  Wittman, and the other 50 Republican congressmen who voted for the Rule to allow the Cromnibus bill to come to a vote (at which time they knew that enough Democrats would support it, so they could vote “no”), think we are stupid.  They think we still don’t understand how Congress works so that their sleights of hand will confuse and bedazzle us.  

Congressman Wittman is not alone in practicing this chicanery.   His office just happened to give us a really clear example of it.  The other 50 representatives who voted like him are just as guilty.  There are articles all over the media naming the 16 Heroes of the House (h/t Redstate), who really meant their opposition and meant to keep the bill from being passed.  There are also numerous listings of the 67 who voted against the Cromnibus once it came to the floor.  Take a look and see if your representative is on both lists or only on the latter.  If he or she voted “no” only on the second vote, don’t let him or her fool you again.

Doris Armijo Carender is a retired district director of four state Offices of Worker's Compensation Programs, U.S. Dept. of Labor.