Wednesday Afternoon Update: Zelensky In D.C., $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Advances, DEA Seized Enough Fentanyl To Kill Every American In 2022

This article is a companion piece to today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update. To listen to the podcast version, click here.

Biden Administration Sending More Assistance To Ukraine

The Biden administration announced today it is sending $1.85 billion in aid to Ukraine comprised of $1 billion in military equipment and $850 million in funding. The announcement came just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Washington, D.C., where he met with President Joe Biden. This evening, Zelensky will address congressional members on Capitol Hill, reportedly to ask for more weapons.

$1.7 Trillion Omnibus Advances

The Senate on Tuesday advanced a massive 4,155-page spending package totaling nearly $1.7 trillion by a 70-25 vote with 21 Republicans lending their support. Conservative critics claim the bill is loaded with pork and doesn’t properly address America’s most pressing issues.

House Ways and Means Committee Votes To Release Trump Taxes

The House Ways and Means Committee voted along party lines on Tuesday to release years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

DEA Seized Enough Fentanyl To Kill Every American In 2022

The Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it seized enough fentanyl so far this year to kill every single American citizen, comprised of 50.6 million fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl, along with more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, with two weeks left in the calendar year 2022. That amounts to more than 379 million lethal doses of fentanyl.

Musk Announces What’s Next For Twitter

Elon Musk announced Tuesday that he will be stepping away as the head of Twitter. On Tuesday night, he tweeted, “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”

California Earthquake Kills At Least Two

Two deaths and 12 injuries have been reported in association with the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Northern California yesterday. More than 14,000 families are still without power in Humboldt County.

Today Is The Winter Solstice

And today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. From here on out, the days are going to start getting longer and brighter.

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Season’s Greetings From The Swamp: Support Our $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Bill, Pay Your Taxes, And Kick Rocks, America

Happy holidays, America, now support The Uniparty’s massive $1.7 trillion spending bill, pay your taxes, and kick rocks.

That’s the message from our elder statesmen in Washington, D.C. these days.

You’ve spent your whole year working hard, getting taxed out the wazoo, and for what?

Well, you’ve been busting your butt at your 9-5 (and then some) so that your hard-earned money can be used to grow the size of government and give billions upon billions to Left-leaning causes touted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as “a strong outcome for Republicans.”

What sort of programs does McConnell love? Holding the feds accountable? Protecting American sovereignty? Dismantling a tyrannical government?

Nope. The FBI is getting a $600 million funding increase and we’re allotting $213 million more to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

That comes after the G-men were busted running political coverage for the Biden gang, pushing social media to censor certain stories, raiding journalists and pro-life dads, and more.

Perhaps with historic inflation, the FBI will have to increase the amount of cash it gives to social media companies to squash stories that it deems threats to Democrats democracy.

The bill does give more than $1.5 billion for “border management requirements of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”

That sounds great — until you realize that the bill explicitly says that funding given to Border Patrol cannot be used to secure the American border. Here’s the relevant portion:

“None of the funds provided in subsection shall be used— 

to hire permanent Federal employees;

for any flight hours other than those flown by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations, except for internal transportation of noncitizens;

or to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities, except for technology and capabilities to improve Border Patrol processing.

What that means is that the U.S. can use the funding to fly illegal aliens around the country and get them in more quickly.

As explained by Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), “As a result, this funding, which Democrats will claim is to address the border crisis they created, will only make it worse by more quickly and comfortably resettling migrants in places like Tennessee.”

Some borders matter to the Democrats and 21 Republicans who voted in support of the legislation — but just not the borders of this country.

The law gives $45 billion to Ukraine to defend itself. It should be noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is prepared to say it’s not enough Wednesday night during his speech to a joint session of Congress.

It also gives $150 million — and not a penny less — to the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan.

Other entities getting a raise include the National Institutes of Health — going from $45 billion to a whopping $47.5 billion.

Readers might like to know that Congress’ office of “diversity and inclusion” will receive $26 million as well.

The bill, believe it or not, even puts plants over people.

As noted by Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), “$575 million in a global health section allocated for ‘family planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species.'”

At a time when America’s birth rate is plummeting, The D.C. Establishment is putting half a billion toward depopulation efforts to protect nature.

If you think the Republicans got a rotten deal and want your representatives to oppose the plan, then you must not support U.S. troops and want to help the Chinese Communist Party, according to McConnell.

“There are literally two options before us,” the Senate minority leader said of the bill. “Number one, we can pass this bill, give our service members and commanders the resources they need, flip the president’s broken budget request on its head, and actually cut baseline, non-defense, non-veteran spending in real dollars while we’re at it. Or we can fail to pass this bill and give our armed forces confusion and uncertainty while the Chinese Communist Party continues to help their military commanders pour money into new research and new weapons.”

Mitch McConnell “There are literally two options before us. Number one, we can pass this bill, give our service members and commanders the resources they need. Or we can fail to pass this bill and give our armed forces confusion and uncertainty.” pic.twitter.com/L1N6CZbfJ0

— Public News DC (@PublicNewsDC) December 21, 2022

Of course, McConnell’s stance is no surprise.

His top priority for practically all of 2022 has been the war in Ukraine. From May to December, he has told the press that that effort is his main focus.

Republican voters have been focused on illegal immigration, inflation, crime, and the economy. But, hey, maybe next year you’ll get a GOP representing your interests in Congress for Christmas.

In the meantime, be prepared to pay the taxman every last dime you owe and then some — because the omnibus also gives the IRS more than $5 billion for tax enforcement activities.

Oh also, The Uniparty says to kick rocks — again.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.