Political incongruence
Congressional
inaction
For weeks now we have been
listening to the complaints from the Republican Party members about the
multiple scandals that have unfolded from the Administration. How many times
have we heard about Lois Learner, her alleged involvement in the targeted IRS
investigations into conservative groups and individuals? How many times have we
listened to the tirades of republican representatives and senators complaining
about the spying from the NSA? We have listened to the travesty of the waiting
lists in the veteran’s administration hospital system and the number of
veterans who have died as a result of the sub-standard care and lack of
leadership. We are even now hearing of the House of Representatives suing the President
for overreaching and extending his power by changing various laws, especially
in the Affordable Care Act. Now we are even hearing about the IRS official Lois
Learner having written an instant message to subordinates asking about the
messages and warning them to not write anything that might be shared with
Congress during various investigations; the so-called “smoking gun” of the IRS
issue.
Yet, through all the
complaints from Congressional members we are not seeing actual action being
taken. All we see is grandstanding and “woe is me” type of speeches. The
Congress has the power of the purse; they control the funding of the various
agencies under the President. Congress can simply reduce or eliminate the
funding to those agencies so they cannot operate. The President cannot extend
his power to provide the funding he needs to implement those “pen and phone”
ventures he so happily likes to tout about. The Congress also has the power and
authority to impeach various high-official government employees who are not
doing the job they were appointed to do. Yet, to date, we have not seen any
attempt by Congress to interrupt any of the inner workings of the scandals by
actually holding people accountable by actually starting the impeachment
process for those leaders of those agencies. Nor have we heard anything about
defunding the many agencies that are spending massive amounts of money to
produce emails they fail to produce, and even lose and then recycle the hard
drives.
It is time, past time, for
the Congress to use their Constitutional power to step up to the plate and use
the tools they have available to them to actually do something and quit whining
about the misuse of power the President is exerting.
Presidential
inaction
Of course while the
President has been keeping himself busy with the activities of his “pen and
phone” to give the Congress reason to take action of their own against his
abuse of power, there is something he could do that would be beneficial and
increase his standing with the American people at the same time.
It was back to jail for the
Marine Sgt. Tahmooressi who had a court hearing in Mexico on July 9th .
For over 100 days he has been in prison for his having mistakenly crossed the
U.S. and Mexican border more than three months ago. The judge hearing the case
made the decision to return Sgt. Tahmooressi to his jail cell to wait for the
next hearing that will keep processing for months to come as it passes through
the Mexican judicial system.
Here is a Marine who has spent two tours in
the Afghanistan war theater and has seemingly been “left behind” in Mexico with
little or no intervention from the President or his Administration. There are
many Congressional representatives who are trying to intervene on the Marine’s
behalf. The President, however, seems too busy to speak up for that Marine, but
for one who may have deserted his post to look for the Taliban the President
seemed all too willing to negotiate with the Taliban that ultimately received
five high-ranking terrorists back into their fold to fight against Americans
another day.
Mexico is a trading partner with the United
States that amounts to billions of dollars. Tens of thousands of Mexican
citizens have illegally crossed the American border and are now being given
aide to live the American way of life to follow the American Dream. The
taxpayers of the United States are giving over 250 million dollars in aid to
the Mexican people annually. The United States is currently involved in trying
to care for at least 65,000 unaccompanied children who passed through Mexico
from the extreme Southern Mexican border to the Northern Mexico border where
they have been dumped without having been arrested: One American arrested and
jailed for mistakenly crossing the border; 65,000 Central American citizens
crossing the border, traveling more than a thousand through the heartland of
Mexico and no arrests. Instead the Mexican government aids and abets that
movement all the way to the American border.
One call with his phone or
one letter with his pen to the President of Mexico from the President of the
United States with a request or demand to release the U.S. Marine would get the
job done. What is the reason he will not make the effort? Many American
citizens want to know.
Looking at the inaction of
both Congress in their dealings with the Presidential misadventures and the
inaction of the President in his failing to connect with the Mexican government
in regard to the Sgt. Tahmooressi incident is more than the American people
should tolerate. We are not getting what
we paid for in votes and taxes. Perhaps
washing the slate clean in November would help.
Jim Killebrew
