Enough political sparring already! America needs its elected representatives in Congress and the White House to work on policies that make America smarter, healthier, richer and stronger — not weaker — because of the non-stop political gridlock in Washington D.C.
How much more self-destructive dirty laundry does America have to air at the expense of its citizens as the world, Russia and China, look on sneeringly as they bank America’s losses?
House Speaker Pelosi is right not to support impeaching President Trump.
“I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi told the Washington Post earlier this week.
“Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country,” she said.
Pelosi correctly pointed to the excruciating process of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the House in 1998, and his subsequent acquittal by the Senate.
“That was horrible for the country,” she said.
That was the reason she did not initiate impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush for lying about the reasons he went to war in Iraq in 2003, when she was last Speaker — and could have.
Speaker Pelosi was also right when she said Trump’s National Emergency order was an unconstitutional attempt to expand executive authority and strip lawmakers of their power of the purse.
“The president’s power grab usurps that responsibility and fundamentally violates the balance of power envisioned by our founders,” Pelosi said.
President Trump invoked the National Emergencies Act on February 15 as Congress gave final approval to the 1169-page $333billion omnibus spending bill that funds the government through the fiscal year-end of September 30. The president was “not thrilled” with the $1.375 billion he got for 55 miles of border barriers. Hence his extra $6.7 billion generated by the emergency declaration.
The Democratic controlled House struck down Trump’s emergency declaration by a comfortable margin of 245-182, sending it to the Republican-controlled Senate where it looks like it will pass as well. Republican Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul and Thom Tillis are voting with their fellow Democrats, and will send the measure to President Trump, who has already promised to veto and deflect the question of its legality to the courts!
I agree with Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who said President Trump is “wrong…. in seeking to expand the powers of the presidency beyond their constitutional limits. I understand his frustration. Dealing with Congress can be pretty difficult sometimes. But Congress appropriates money, and his only constitutional recourse, if he does not like the amount they appropriate, is to veto the bill.”
Paul cited the Supreme Court ruling on Youngstown Steel in 1952 and said he thinks the national emergency declaration isn’t constitutional because it goes against “the will of Congress.”
Paul went on to say “extraconstitutional executive actions are wrong, no matter which party does them.”
Lawyers wasted no time. Four environmental groups and property owners on the border, filed federal lawsuits against the Trump administration, in hopes of blocking the president’s national emergency declaration that seeks to redirect $6.7 billion in already allocated funds to build the wall.
Several states are also getting in on the legal action as are the different political factions in D.C. California, New York, Washington, and El Paso County Texas, and the Border Network for Human Rights, a Texas-based group that advocates for “marginalized border communities” say they, too, will litigate.
Legal experts are divided on whether Trump’s emergency declaration is legal.
As if that wasn’t enough legal presidential hassles, Democrats launched sweeping new probes of the president into his White House, campaign and family business.
America is a Constitutional Republic and no elected official, or government body of officials, should be allowed to trample on the separation of powers and checks and balances America’s Founding Fathers spelled out in the Republics foundation stones.
Enough legal challenges! Enough wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on legal fees already! The time and money should be spent on policies and legislation that benefits all Americans. Not just lawyers and career politicians.
Democrats, Republicans, Independents, President and Congress, must come together, unite and meet halfway for America to reclaim its prosperity, admiration and aspirational role as global political-economic icon — and trend-setter. Politically, economically and militarily.
Mr. President, let’s make America greater, domestically and globally. Please don’t create an unnecessary constitutional crisis!