Congress Raises Debt Limit by Sneaking It Into Bill Titled 'Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act'
Why don’t the American people trust their elected politicians?
Well, on Tuesday, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District provided the country with a perfect example of Washington’s duplicity.
In a Twitter post, Massie revealed that Congress raised the national debt limit by a whopping $480 billion by sneaking the provision that did so into a bill titled “Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act.”
Congress just raised the debt limit $480,000,000,000 using a bill entitled “Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act”
Yes, it will take a lot of physical activity from hard working Americans to pay off this debt! pic.twitter.com/ODPTRQBvuT
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 13, 2021
“Congress just raised the debt limit $480,000,000,000 using a bill entitled ‘Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act,'” Massie wrote on Twitter.
“Yes, it will take a lot of physical activity from hard-working Americans to pay off this debt!”
The bill in question is meant to act as a yearly report from the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Originally, the purpose of the report was supposedly to provide “physical activity recommendations for the people of the United States.”
This would include “physical activity information” and “recommendations for consideration and use by the general public.”
The bill is also meant to serve as the basis for federal health programs to be used by various federal agencies.
In short, it has zero to do with raising the debt limit, and there’s no reason a debt-limit hike belongs there.
That is, unless Congress was trying to remind the American people of how its wasting taxpayer money.
In an amendment to the bill, the following was indeed added:
“The limitation under section 3101(b) of title 31, United States Code, as most recently increased by section 301 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 (31 U.S.C 3101 note), is increased by $480,000,000,000,” the amendment to the bill reads.
The bill, with the amendment, passed the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 50-48 after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reached an agreement with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. (And Republicans got precious little thanks from Schumer for it.)
The “physical activity” bill was the vehicle used to put the debt limit hike into law.
The House accepted the bill on Tuesday, according to congressional records.
So, instead of a standalone bill with a title anyone could understand, like: “Bill to Raise the Debt Limit of the United States to Pay for Extravagant Spending at the Expense of Our Grandchildren,” the swamp politicians couched it in a bill with an innocuous title about “promoting physical activity.”
How is it possible to trust a group of people as shady as Congress?
This isn’t the first time they’ve slipped something into a bill that actually has nothing to do with the bill itself.
They do it all the time. Just look at the pork stuffed into the still-pending “infrastructure bill.”
If Congress with its Democratic leaders really wants to gain the trust of the American people, they should be upfront about what exactly its members are up to.
Instead, they chose to cover up their actions by hiding the truth.
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