COMMON GOOD
EXTINCT OBLIGATION IN CONGRESS
President
Obama is led on a tour of the National Operations Center by
Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security Secretary, and
Richard M. Chavez, Director of Operations
Coordination and Planning, at the Department of Homeland Security.
(Photo:
Kristoffer Tripplaar/Newscom)
TAGS:
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING,
CONGRESSIONAL
INACTION, REPUBLICANS PRESENT OBSTACLES,
GOP
INSISTS IMMIGRATION RIDER BE INCLUDED WITH
DHS
FUNDING,
PRESIDENT
OBAMA AND DHS SECRETARY JOHNSON
HOPING
CONGRESS WILL ACT “WISELY”
(Tuesday February 24, 2015 NYC) If a vigorous search to find 535 of the most
corrupt, self-serving, scandalous, irresponsible Americans one would need not
look any further than the United States Congress. With each new Congress we find new levels of
ineptitude and petty politicking that would be laughable if the stakes
associated with their childish antics were not so high. The real world requires a Congress to act in
the greater good always striving in the built in system of checks and balances
to find practical common ground from which to perform their role in our
Democratic Republic. What our Founding Fathers carefully constructed in theory and
practice as codified in our Constitution is, sadly, an antiquated set of ideals
that long ago went missing from the Capitol.
Just when it appears a Congress has sunken to the lowest level of
productivity, honest efforts, and reasoned debate a new Congress comes into
office and redefines idiocy and ineptitude even when it comes to vital issues
both foreign and domestic.
The cause of the day is the
looming crisis over the passage of a spending bill primarily intended to fund
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
By some bizarre, twisted logic of the Republican controlled House and
Senate, they are seeking to attach a “rider” to this all important funding bill
that would negate President Obama’s efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration
policy. Legislative riders are often the
lubricant that allows the large bill to pass by appeasing a special interest
sect of the Congress; usually hard-liners opposed to any Presidential
initiatives no matter how perilous their antics are. We have witnessed government “shutdowns” in
the past and the reality that the DHS could effectively be shutdown come Friday
should be inconceivable particularly while we remain militarily engaged in anti
and counter terrorism efforts and our increasing role in geopolitical hotspots
around the world. Perhaps the Congress
of today would be more responsible had the Capitol Building been destroyed
while Congress was in session on September 11, 2001.
While the majority of the
American electorate might remain disinterested and unaware of the day to day
matters that require Congressional action, the eyes of the rest of the world. Particularly
those who wish to inflict harm on us at home or our interests overseas
certainly follow with great attention what our federal government does and does
not do. Our enemies seek to exploit any weakness they can find in our
government and how we conduct business regarding the security of the homeland
and our foreign military exploits. If
one were to visit some of the English language web sites of the various
terrorist and extremist groups that most work to harm us one would be surprised
by just how closely they follow American politics and often interpret our
Congressional dysfunction as a form of cowardice and lack of resolve in the
various military missions we are part of today. They take such information and
turn it into propaganda that they widely disseminate and use as recruiting
materials and “proof” that the USA, the “infidels” have no “stomach for the
battles”.
In a week that saw Republicans
arguing the “patriotism” of President Obama they fall see realize their own inactivity
and crass politicking is the height of being unpatriotic. As they have allowed
their senseless debate on patriotism they seem oblivious to their own dereliction
of duty and the simple fact that they themselves are acting in a highly
unpatriotic manner.
But, we elect the Congress we
get; we have no one to blame since we continue to vote the same obstructionists
and moronic airbags, or newly elected clones cut from the same fabric to fill a
vacant seat. One could wonder about how
the men and women of the current Congress can sleep at night but that question
would only have validity if those in question had morals and scruples when it
comes to conducting the official business of “the people”. Obviously the Congress is devoid of morals
and scruples and with each passing year they become less and less effective
even concerning their most basic functions.
It does not help matters that they have scheduled a scant 97 legislative
days on this year’s calendar with the balance of their time devoted to fund
raising and “investigative junkets” that are nothing more than cushy paid
vacations to exotic lands underwritten by the American taxpayer. Even with bloated staffs to do the bulk of
their work members of Congress are so far removed from reality no matter the
topic or issue that we would be better served by 535 chimpanzees.
As has been the case all too
often in the past, situations such as this one will somehow magically be
resolved, or partially resolved, in the final minutes of the last day of the
deadline. What typically emerges from
Congress in these 23rd hour solutions is neither good governance nor
a true solution to the matter at hand.
If the DHS is not funded by Friday night it is anyone’s guess what the
ramifications might be but, Congress doesn’t care; only people “burdened” by
morals and scruples would wrestle with such concerns.
Copyright The
Brooding Cynyx 2015 © All Rights Reserved
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