The race is on between the Republicans and Democrats to claim the biggest victory in the deal to keep the government open. You’re going to hear Democratic-Republican Senator ______ say they stopped ______ while saving funding for ______. You’ll hear Democratic-Republican Congressman _____ sidestep questions about _____ with dismissive redirects pointing to the necessity for moving forward and dealing with nuances at a later date.

At the end of the day, both sides will claim big victories. Here’s the problem. If both sides are winning, that means somebody’s losing. Is it the politicians? No. They engorged the budget and expanded their overreach while ingratiating themselves to the special interest groups they serve – win, win, win in DC.

If both sides are claiming victory, that can only mean one thing. They both got to keep their limitless credit cards. As a nation, we can’t afford to fund half of the pet projects on one side of the fence let alone both. That’s why we’re talking about a $1 trillion deal just to keep things running for five months.

Congress is expected to vote on the roughly $1 trillion package early this week. The bipartisan agreement includes policy victories for Democrats, whose votes will be necessary to pass the measure in the Senate, as well as $12.5 billion in new military spending and $1.5 billion more for border security requested by Republican leaders in Congress.

$1 trillion.

Five months.

Lest we forget, this doesn’t include massive infrastructure spending nor does it start building the wall, both of which are hot buttons for the administration. Don’t worry. He won’t forget. You can expect Congress to throw those two huge items on the credit card as well.

I get it. Nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. Nobody wants to go to this project or that department and say, “Guys, there’s just not enough money for us to keep funding you. Please be prepared to find private sector jobs because we’re overextended as a nation.”

It hurts to say that. It makes people angry. It makes voters point fingers. It causes politicians to lose elections… or so goes the old narrative that’s been driving DC politics for decades. My involvement with the Federalist Party includes an understanding that we’re going to have to be the bad guys who cut up the credit cards and slash spending in dramatic fashion. Waiting around for either major party to do it is an exercise in futility. Someone has to be the adult in the room. The Federalists are willing to take the chance because we believe if we educate the people on the benefits of smaller government, many will embrace the need to do the right things with the money the IRS “borrows” from the people.

Fiscal responsibility is nothing more than a sales pitch during campaign season for most Republicans and it’s completely taboo for nearly every Democrat, so why should we expect them to cut spending? Unfortunately, it’s even worse than that. As I’ve mentioned in the past, reining in the federal government isn’t just about budgets. It’s a three-pronged attack.

The challenge isn’t in taking actions to reduce government overreach. The real roadblock is in coordinating the efforts to take on the three areas of overreach simultaneously. Attacking one or two at a time is futile because of the intertwined nature of the three. To know how to make a real difference in DC, we must understand the nature of the three forms of overreach: budget, bureaucracy, and power.

Folks, I can’t stress this enough: budgets, bureaucracy, and power need to be slashed with the carnage that only a chainsaw can bring to the table. The notion that we can make surgical cuts here or there became unfeasible decades ago. It’s time to chop off entire limbs of the leviathan Washington DC has become.

Do not buy into the idea that the Republicans are going to drain the swamp. It’s not happening and this spending package demonstrates this. Let’s see how many Republicans vote for this package to continue to fund Planned Parenthood.

Do not buy into the idea that President Trump is going to razzle-dazzle the Democrats with 3D chess by invoking the art of the deal. He declared two things he wanted in this budget: opening funding for the wall and $30 billion in additional funding for the military. They’re putting a deal on his desk that specifically declares zero dollars can be spent on building the wall while granting half the money he asked for in military spending. Will he sign it even though it’s a loser on both items he asked for initially? You betcha.

The Democrats seem mesmerized:

“This agreement is a good agreement for the American people, and takes the threat of a government shutdown off the table,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren’t used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison pill riders, and increases investments in programs that the middle-class relies on, like medical research, education and infrastructure.”

Razzle-dazzle.

There’s a reason I’m helping to build a new third-party. The two major parties are out of control and every other third-party has failed to act as a speed bump let alone as an actual impediment along the destructive course the Democratic-Republicans are taking us. This spending package reaffirms the need for someone to stand up and scream, “Stop!”