A Timely Reminder

Just about when some of us were wondering just what the hell was the point of Republican control of Congress, if they kept behaving like Democrats, and even asking whether there was any longer a difference between the two, and whether it wasn't perhaps time for a change, comes this reminder:

Congressional negotiators for the House and Senate agreed on a $142 billion Labor-HHS-Education spending bill with no earmarks. [...] Anyway, things looked great until the House brought the conference report on the bill with no pork barrel earmarks to the floor for a vote. There were 209 votes for the conference report, every one of them cast by a Republican. But there were 224 votes against the conference report, including 201 Democrats, 22 moderate GOPers and Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist who votes with the Democrats.

Yes, this is bad news. A Republican-controlled House voted down the first serious attack on pork. But notice that 209 Republicans voted for the report, while only 22 voted against it; meanwhile, every single Democrat voted against. The lesson is clear - however bad things are now, a Democrat majority is sure to make them worse. What we need to do is not abandon the GOP, but increase its majority, while clearing out the RINOs.