As Fox News, along with other news outlets, is reporting, the House yesterday fell—yet again—into disorder as Tea Party Republicans rebelled one more time against their own leadership on the immigration issue. Fortunately, both the Veterans Affairs bill and the highway bill managed to pass, though it should be noted that earlier in the week it looked as though even these supposedly non-controversial bills were going to have to wait until after the recess.
The pattern of refusing to “play nice” with anyone with whom they disagree continues to be the consistent pattern of the Tea Party. Though they are in the minority, the cry of “taking our country back” means simply and only that Congress must vote the way they want or else. The result has been both gridlock and intensive posturing, but no actual change in the country.
At this point, the country is being run by the President and the Supreme Court. Executive orders and court rulings have been what has kept this country going. From court rulings on gay marriage, recess appointments, and Hobby Lobby to executive orders on work visas and enforcement of non-discrimination decrees, the country is staggering from one decision to another.
Ironically, the very refusal of Tea Party Republicans to cooperate with anyone else has resulted in Congress’ inability to accomplish the legislative goals for which they were elected. Rather, the very stance of the Tea Party has led to the very type of government that they most dislike, a government not run by the three branches of government, but by two branches of government and an extensive government bureaucracy.
And, without effective oversight from Congress, the bureaucracy has slowly gone out of control. Most federal department executives are protected from firing and—except for yesterday’s VA bill—are able to issue rules and regulations with little fear of Congressional oversight and revisions due to the gridlock. From the IRS through the VA and now through the CIA, they are able to function with impunity, needing to do little except to issue the obligatory formal apology when caught.
And, when the President does try to act by executive order, Congress promptly takes him to task for trying to change matters. It is important that you catch that Congress complains both about the attempts by the Executive to bring change and then complains because he has not brought change. But, they actually have a point. The Code of Federal Regulations, under which the various federal departments function are regulations passed and amended by Congress, NOT by the Executive. This is why it literally took an Act of Congress to allow for the firing of VA executives. Despite complaints about Executive over-reach, there are legal limits which the Executive must observe.
And so, we have the problem with immigration, which remains unsolved. Like it or not, Executive decisions will continue to need to be taken. Insufficient people will watch over the border because Congress refuses to increase the budget of the very agency that needs extra agents while complaining about the lack of agents and facilities in the border areas.
We shall see on Friday whether the endless internal Republican debate can be resolved long enough to allow for a vote. In the meantime, I like the comic above because it does point out an interesting bit of contradiction on the part of those who have caused the gridlock on immigration. On the one hand, they are now saying that we need to take care of our own kids before we take care of the children flooding in. On the other hand, the record of this Congress has been one of cutting back on the very programs that would help our children. Thus, the cry of helping our children first rings somewhat hollow.
Lord, have mercy.
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