White House and GOP Conspired on Education Takeover

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The American people went to the polls in massive numbers to vote in Republican congressional candidates over the last few elections — but giving Republican leaders control of Congress was all for nothing, the latest GOP betrayal of the Constitution and its constituents showed. As if to rub it in, Obama’s Education secretary, Arne Duncan, has been gloating about how the administration literally conspired with Republican leadership to pass a 1,061-page “education” bill that for the first time codifies Obama’s radical education agenda — including the almost universally loathed Common Core standards and much more — into federal “law.”

Obama called it a “Christmas miracle,” echoing comments from other Democrats and teachers’ unions. And while Duncan also suggested that the administration had duped less-than-intelligent Republicans into passing the Obama-backed “Every Student Succeeds Act,” or ESSA, the reality is that GOP leaders are not idiots. Instead, they knowingly and willingly betrayed their constituents and their oath of office to help Obama advance his agenda of “fundamentally transforming” America.

In an interview with Politico Pro celebrating the GOP-approved bill, Duncan expressed amazement at how readily and boldly Republican lawmakers were willing to betray those who elected them, as well as their own oath of office to the U.S. Constitution. “I’m stunned at how much better it ended up than either [the already radically unconstitutional House and/or Senate] bill going into conference,” gushed Duncan about the ESSA bill, which already had the strong support of the administration before it was packed with even more of Obama’s agenda in the House-Senate conference. “I had a Democratic congressman say to me that it’s a miracle — he’s literally never seen anything like it…. If you look at the substance of what is there … embedded in the law are the values that we’ve promoted and proposed forever. The core of our agenda from Day One, that’s all in there — early childhood [“education”], high standards [Common Core], not turning a blind eye when things are bad. For the first time in our nation’s history, that’s the letter of the law.”

In other words, even the Obama administration was shocked at how brazenly Republican leadership was willing to throw Americans and the Constitution under the bus to advance Obama’s radical “education” agenda. Duncan also recounted his conversation with Republican leadership in Congress, and how they plotted to stab conservative voters in the back through stealth, deception, and lies. “I honestly didn’t know if they’d have the political courage to do that,” Duncan said, referring to Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Representative John Kline (R-Minn.), who led the congressional education committees and spearheaded the efforts to impose Obama’s education schemes and trick Americans about it. “But they both said they would and they did. I give them tremendous credit for that.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan also promised to betray conservatives, Duncan said — and he did. Of course, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, also a Republican, was also instrumental in ensuring passage of Obama’s radical education bill. In all, just 64 Republicans voted against the bill in the House, with 359 establishment Republicans and Democrats supporting it. In the Senate, the bill also passed overwhelmingly, with just 12 conservative and constitutionalist Republicans defying Obama and GOP leadership to vote against ESSA. Once again, then, GOP “leadership” relied on Democrat votes to impose Obama’s agenda. Literally all voting Democrats in the House and Senate supported the bill.

Duncan even admitted to conspiring with GOP leaders on how to implement Obama’s education agenda without the public figuring it out. “We were intentionally quiet on the bill — they asked us specifically not to praise it — and to let it get through,” he explained. “And so we went into radio silence and then talked about it after the fact…. Our goal was to get this bill passed — intentionally silent on the many, many good aspects of the bill…. We were very strategically quiet on good stuff.” So, while Republican lawmakers were lying to the American people about the bill supposedly reducing the federal footprint on education, GOP leadership knew all along that they were implementing Obama’s radical agenda. Put simply, they lied to the people.

Obama’s “education” secretary also directly exposed his congressional co-conspirators, who falsely claimed the bill stopped Common Core and reduced D.C.’s role in “education,” as either liars, dupes, or both. “The final thing is we have every ability to implement, to regulate the law … it’s just a Washington typical storyline,” he said. “And candidly, our lawyers are much smarter than many of the folks who were working on this bill. There are some face-saving things you give up, some talking points you give up, which we always do because we’re focused on substance. And we have every ability to implement. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.” So Duncan, who brags of turning American children into “green” citizens with his “global partner” UNESCO via the “weapon” of education, got everything he and Obama wanted — and all of the money needed to implement it.

Critics, though, were fuming. “Every member of Congress who claims to be conservative and who voted for this, deciding to trust the establishment rather than the knowledgeable constituents who know this issue intimately, should hang his or her head in shame,” said Emmett McGroarty, executive director of American Principles Project – Education, in comments about Duncan’s gloating. “These revelations should end the pathetic charade that Congress just restored states’ autonomy in education. Members of Congress can stop sending out mendacious press statements bragging about how they wrenched back power from Obama and Duncan. The only acceptable statements from them should be along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry, and I choose not to run for re-election’.” Senator Alexander, Rep. Kline, and Speaker Ryan “have simply betrayed their constituents, especially the last few who actually believed any integrity remained in the Republican establishment,” McGroarty added, asking why a Republican Party was even needed at this point.

Indeed, the words of the late establishment historian Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton’s mentor and a professor at Georgetown University, on the alleged differences between the two political parties, have perhaps never been more relevant. “The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers,” Quigley wrote in his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope. “Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.” That was illustrated perfectly with the GOP Congress imposing Obama’s education agenda on America. After turning out in massive numbers to support Republicans and stop Obama, GOP leaders simply continued enabling Obama as if nothing had happened. And they no longer even bother to conceal it, as Duncan’s comments to Politico show.

Of course, with the recent “omnibus” bill betrayal, which also relied on Democrat votes to pass Obama’s agenda, Speaker Ryan ensured that Obama could continue advancing his fundamental transformation of America totally unimpeded. From funding abortion/lobbying giant Planned Parenthood and Obama’s “climate” antics to handing over tax funds for United Nations-controlled refugee resettlement and executive orders on gun control, Ryan literally handed Obama everything he wanted on a silver platter, and then some. GOP leaders are plotting to approve Obama’s sovereignty-crushing “free trade” regimes, too, if they think they can get away with it. More than a few analysts have speculated that lawmakers are being blackmailed, though they could just as easily be establishment hacks hoping to benefit themselves as they destroy America.

Instead of doing what Ryan, McConnell, and virtually every Republican promised on the campaign trail — reining in Obama, presumably using Congress’ power of the purse, its most important tool — the GOP establishment has poured fuel and taxpayer money on the Obama inferno. All the while, they have been lying and dumping even more impossible-to-pay debt on the American people and their descendants to fund it. Thanks to the atrocious and entirely unconstitutional “education” bill, those descendants are likely to be even more poorly “educated” than they otherwise would have been under Common Core and other miseducation schemes. Indeed, much like the anti-constitutional and unpatriotic so-called “Patriot Act” purporting to demolish constitutionally protected individual liberties, the name of the education bill — the Every Student Succeeds Act — is essentially the opposite of what it does.

Because the U.S. Constitution does not delegate any powers over education to the federal government, every member of Congress who voted for the bill did so in direct defiance of their solemn oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. By brazenly lying to the public and conspiring with the Obama administration to impose its radical “education” agenda on America, Republican lawmakers who supported the bill did so in direct defiance of their repeated promises to voters, too. American children still in government schools will ultimately pay the terrible price for the ESSA scheming, along with the taxpayers forced to pay for the agenda and the nation as a whole. But, it can be hoped that lying politicians who swear an oath to the Constitution with a hand on the Bible — and then promptly vote to shred that same Constitution — can be made to pay a political price. In the meantime, Americans must work at the state and local level to protect the independence of their schools from Obama’s radical agenda, even if it means refusing unconstitutional federal funds. The future of America’s children, and thus the future of America, literally depends on it.

Photo of President Barack Obama and House Speaker Paul Ryan: AP Images

Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, education, politics, and more. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU. He can be reached at: [email protected]