If you’re wondering what Congress has been up to lately, well, not much. Today, The Hill reports that Republicans in the House will not be able to pass a budget this year. So much for everybody rallying around Speaker Paul Ryan. And so much for making government work again.
Republicans have solid majorities in both the House and Senate and yet they still can’t get anything done. On the Senate side, they can’t even have hearings on a Supreme Court nominee. Obama’s prospective appointee, Merrick Garland, has been praised by Republicans like Orin Hatch but they still won’t have hearings about the nominee, much less confirm him.
Republicans are more scared of their base than they are of Garland or a budget. They would rather leave government dysfunctional than offend the angry mob that would make Donald Trump or Ted Cruz the Republican nominee for president. In essence, they have become captive to the extremes in their party.
We see echoes of that dysfunction in North Carolina’s government. Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger called the people opposing House Bill 2 a “left-wing political correctness mob.” That mob would include Fortune 500 companies and some of the state’s largest employers like Bank of America, American Airlines, Google, and Red Hat, not to mention performers like Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr. Berger, though, is appealing to the social conservatives like the NC Values Coalition who claim that opponents of HB2 won’t stop until “until young girls are forced to shower, undress, and use the restrooms with grown men.” Nobody really believes that.
Pandering to extremes has paralyzed the Republican Party. If they can’t pass a budget or confirm a Supreme Court nominee, they certainly can’t address the larger problems facing our country. We have a middle class that desperately needs a raise. We have an infrastructure that was built more than fifty years ago and has deteriorated so much that bridges have fallen into the Mississippi River and the entire city of Flint, Michigan, was poisoned by its water supply. Our economy is increasingly dependent on the type of high speed internet that eludes much of rural America. And Congress is too busy bickering to get anything done.
We desperately need leaders who will reject the political games and pressure from extremes to find solutions that benefit our families. If Obamacare is not working, then fix it. Repealing it hasn’t worked out so well. If immigration is out of control then figure out how to contain it. We’ve been held hostage by people demanding mass deportations since George Bush proposed reform 2006. If young people are too burdened by college debt, then get them some relief so they can put their money into goods and services instead paying interest to banks.
There’s plenty that needs to be done. So do it. America deserves better.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
I’m curious: what would happen if President Obama wrote an executive order declaring that in the absence of a vote one way or the other after 4 months since the nomination the nominee would be treated as if he or she had been approved by the Senate and would temporarily take office so as to get the Court’s work done. Thereafter the Senate would have an additional two months to vote on the nominee or their 6-month refusal to do their job would be deemed a waiver of their responsibility/right to vote on that nominee and the nominee would then be permanently a Supreme Court Justice. After all, there are many Constitutional rights that people can waive simply by their inaction. For example, failure to timely object to illegally obtained evidence being presented at trial means you have waived your right to object to it.
I’m retired now, but if I’d refused to perform the duties of my job while I was still getting a paycheck, I’d either have been fired or–if I was participating in a strike, which is what the Republicans in Congress appear to be doing–I would have expected to receive strike pay from my union or supporters (if any), or do without. I don’t see why my tax dollars should go to support a group that makes more than I ever did during my best working years and does as little as possible for those who pay their salaries–and it’s particularly galling given that I just had to mail the IRS a month’s worth of my pension. I say they either go back to work or depend on the Republican Party, not the taxpayers, to support them while they’re on strike.
Amen. One of your best. Tells exactly why the GOP has chosen to hamstring itself.
If Trump is the nominee and goes with that “Make America Great Again” slogan, the Dems could appropriately run with a “Make America Work Again” pitch, targting the dysfunctionality of the GOP. Like your blog, they’d have a list of examples of how the GOP has done nothing except to say “no” — “no” to on-time budget and appropriations bills, healthcare for all, immigration reform, making college affordable, reproductive choice, civil/voting rights expansion, clean air and water improvements, international agreements, and following the Constitution on SCOTUS appointments in a timely manner.