Hi, I'm Richard Fields with this week's Report From the Fields. Nothing says that Republicans learned nothing from their November wins like GOP Speaker Mike Johnson pushing through a massive budget reconciliation bill at the end of the year that keeps the government open until March.

The bill suspends the debt limit, a Trump demand. It authorizes $110 billion in farm and disaster aid and more submarines for the Navy. Money the government doesn't have. Which means the cost will be passed on to the public in the form of inflation instead of taxes. Amounting to an average of over $320 per person. At 118 pages, it's a marginal improvement over the original Mike Johnson negotiated reconciliation bill which had more than 1500 pages of pork including huge pay raises for Congresscritters.

Johnson, the Republican Speaker had to rely on near unanimous Democratic support and the votes of 34 RINOs. And that demonstrates that in spite of the voter message that elected a Republican House, switched the Senate to GOP control and elected a GOP President, Republicans still are not responding to the desire of the voters for less government spending. Not the same old pushing the ever-increasing debt can down the road.

It's a stark contrast to Argentina where voters elected a President, Javier Milei, who promised to reduce spending and inflation and then actually did so.

In a just world the costs of disasters would be borne by private insurance paid for by those suffering the losses, not by the taxpayers. Likewise, lobbying groups like big Ad and the military/industrial complex would not be bailed out whenever they say please gimmee.

Unfortunately passage of the Reconciliation Bill which increases spending and cuts nothing, when we're already running record red ink under a Republican majority, bodes poorly for any significant change in government overspending. DOGE has its work cut out for it. It doesn't look very optimistic. That's this week's Report From the Fields. I'm Richard Fields. See you again next week.