Monday, October 28, 2019

Jason Smith: Nancy Pelosi has unleashed crippling chaos on Congress

(From Eighth District Congressman Jason Smith)

Never before in our history has the House of Representatives pursued an unsanctioned impeachment investigation of a president.

Since launching the unilateral crusade against President Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has failed to provide any institutional rules for these proceedings – a clearly partisan campaign in direct defiance of our democratic values of due process.

Worst of all, at a time when our congressional to-do list includes keeping the government open and functioning beyond November 21, the impeachment undertaking has unleashed crippling chaos in Congress.

It is not simply Republicans who are furious at what is taking place in the halls of Congress, but even members of the majority party are urging their leadership to regain sanity. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-New Jersey, is one such member. NBC News reported, "As Van Drew sees it, impeachment is a pointless, divisive exercise that will poison the well of bipartisanship and prevent Congress from taking up more important issues, like prescription drug prices and infrastructure."








I couldn’t agree more. There are so many opportunities for Congress to get legislation to the president’s desk to help middle-class Americans which are falling by the wayside because of this impeachment craze.

Congress could be working to address the mental health crisis, combat the opioid epidemic, improve our VA system, lower prescription drug prices, gain critical global market access for our farmers, help stem the tide of rising student loan debt, reduce government waste, reauthorize our country’s military and finally secure our borders. These are issues everyone agrees need to be worked on, and finding solutions to them would instantly raise the quality of life for the hardworking farmers, families, and job creators I represent in southern Missouri.

Yet, this impeachment obsession has rendered Congress unable to address any of these concerns in a real and substantive way. In divided government, impeachment has soiled the waters of bipartisanship and it seems unlikely the majority will quit playing politics any time soon.

This agenda of chaos and perpetual inaction is all coming to a head in less than a month.

On November 21, the Thursday before Thanksgiving, the federal government is poised to shut down. As that deadline approaches your Congress remains incapable of crafting a long-term solution so long as the congressional agenda is dominated by political impeachment games. I’m sure the speaker will soon roll out her flawed spending plan with the false choice of: “accepting this agreement is responsible governing.”

In reality, responsible governing is focusing on the real issues facing families and not conducting a wasteful political charade which has made Congress inoperable and thwarted the exact type of bipartisanship needed to keep government open and functioning on the cusp of another expiring funding deal.

Crafting such a deal takes careful negotiations and good faith agreements between multiple chambers and branches of government, something hard to imagine in such times of hyper-partisanship. In absence of such a deal, simply accommodating the Pelosi agenda of chaos, and rubber-stamping another short-term continuing resolution cobbled together will ignore the grave issues we face as a nation in the hopes they will simply go away. We already tried this in September, and in place of working towards a long-term funding agreement in the weeks since, time has been wasted on a Hail Mary of an impeachment investigation destined for ultimate failure. The Budget Committee, on which I am a senior member, has still failed to even produce a formal budget—putting us at over 190 days since it was due.

Instead of waiting until the next election to make their case to the public about why it’s time for new leadership in the White House, the majority party in the House of Representatives is obstructing democracy by trying to throw President Trump out of office for any reason they can dream up.

That’s not governing. That’s chaos. And that’s the halls of your U.S. Capitol.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would someone please put the rock back on top of Jason so that he can go back to sleep and not bother us with his whining. It is so lame to listen to these poor ignorant souls that forget what they did during the Obama administration. The republicans are the ones so lacking in any sort of civilized demeanor that it is as embarrassing to listen to them as it is their orange haired leader. Sad, but as is said, "Ignorance is bliss".

Anonymous said...

It has only been crippled because of the inept work done by the republicans in the preceding years with their refusal to accept that their leader is lacking any empathy or scruples to be a true leader. He is childlike in his behavior and cannot hold semblance of a minute when trying to read and comprehend what is being told to him or what he can read. It was with sadness that the electorate could not see pass his incompetence enough to make a informed vote.
Even worse is the staff of Jason has to write this stuff for him as he has no real clue what is happening.

Anonymous said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/03/no-honeymoon-for-hillary-congressional-republicans-openly-discussing-impeachment/

"November 3, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. CDT

Senior Republican lawmakers are openly discussing the prospect of impeaching Hillary Clinton should she win the presidency, a stark indication that partisan warfare over her tenure as secretary of state will not end on Election Day.

Chairmen of two congressional committees said in media interviews this week they believe Clinton committed impeachable offenses in setting up and using a private email server for official State Department business.

And a third senior Republican, the chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee, told The Washington Post he is personally convinced Clinton should be impeached for influence peddling involving her family foundation. He favors further congressional investigation into that matter.

“It is my honest opinion that the Clinton Foundation represents potentially one of the greatest examples of political corruption in American history,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who leads the Constitution and Civil Justice subcommittee. “Now that perspective may be disproven, time will tell. But given that conviction on my part, I think all options are definitely on the table.”"

Anonymous said...

Guys, regardless of anything past republicans or democrats have done or what will be done, doesn’t it still boil down to whether Trump did it or not?

Anonymous said...

You would think innocence or guilt would matter but it doesn't. Politics and scoring points against rivals is what matters.