I want to know how much Pete Ricketts, Deb Fischer, Don Bacon, Mike Flood or Adrian Smith thinks the January 6th insurrectionists should get for threatening to kill them. What’s the going rate for attempting to murder a member of Congress? What’s the payday for trying to overthrow the government?

Should the J6’rs who wanted to hang the Vice President get more than those who just broke in and shit on Nancy Pelosi’s desk? Or should every convicted rioter get the same amount of cash regardless of the severity of the crime?

What do our legislators think is a fair sum to reward these convicted criminals?

President Trump brokered a deal with his former lawyer and current acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to set up a slush fund of 1.7 billion dollars of taxpayer money to compensate those who feel they’ve been hurt by the so-called “weaponization of the Biden Justice Department.”

That would include those convicted of crimes on January 6th and potentially the president and his family as well.

This deal was put together to settle a dubious ten-billion-dollar lawsuit Donald Trump and his sons filed against the IRS for releasing their tax returns. No president in history has ever filed a lawsuit like this. The president has the power to fire the very lawyers he would be up against.

The fix was already in. This massive grift of taxpayer funds stunk from the very start.

Now this money will be spent without the approval of Congress, like the Constitution mandates. The judge who was assigned the original case didn’t sign off on the agreement either. If this is left to stand, the money will be doled out by a committee handpicked by the president who will serve at the Commander in Chief’s pleasure.

I can’t believe that any decent Republican, whether they are an elected official or not, can just quietly stand by and say nothing about the latest blatant scam and abuse of power.

I spent 30 years doing talk radio. I worked on stations that carried shows like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and others. I know how conservatives would have reacted if Obama, Biden, or either of the Clintons had tried to pull a stunt like this.

They would have been rightfully outraged.

Yet the Republican members of Congress and too many of the conservative talking heads remain quiet.

I’d also like to know what Senators Ricketts and Fischer, and Congressmen Bacon, Flood, and Smith think their integrity is worth.

Were the tax cuts payment enough? How much did they charge the president for selling him their backbones?

They say that America is getting ready to celebrate its 250th birthday.

But is America really 250 years old, or is it more like a year and a half?

Because it’s getting harder and harder to recognize this country anymore. A country where the government goes after late-night comedians they don’t like. A country where the powers that be attack reporters when they report a true story that upsets the administration.

I never thought America could become a country that rounds up human beings and locks them up based solely on the color of their skin without affording them due process. I also never pictured us as a country that is run by executive orders rather than the checks and balances our Founding Fathers set up to protect us from totalitarian rule.

Is this what America stood for the last 249 years, or is this a new America? An America where our government officials sit on their hands and do nothing as President Trump starts a war without their consent, profits from stock trades with companies he awards contracts to, and sets up an almost two-billion-dollar fund to reward convicted criminals who did his bidding.

Will he use the money from the slush fund to finance more insurrectionists if he tries to stay in power after the 2028 election? Will the Republicans in Congress stand up to him then? Or just bend over like they did the last time?

We are just like frogs who slowly die in a pot of hot water. The temperature keeps rising and rising until the frog eventually croaks.

The abuses of power keep getting bigger and bigger. To many Americans and Republicans in power, it’s beginning to seem like a normal way to govern. Before you know it, the checks and balances and governmental oversight disappear.

If our Republican representatives don’t start speaking up, the country we knew will be gone.

I ask our Federal Delegation…. Will the price be worth it?

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.