by JACK LINDEN
I am becoming totally dissatisfied with the goings on in Washington D.C. – on both sides of the aisle, in both houses. Both the House and the Senate need a lesson in the constitution.
Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate should be made to look up the words legislature, legislate and enact. Members of Congress were elected to go to Washington D.C. to legislate or enact laws. They were not sent there to wait on the President to write laws or create budgets.
Next, they should read the Constitution, where they will find that the basic duties of the House of Representatives is to originate any bills dealing with monetary matters. Most American students in basic American Government classes can tell you that bit of information, even years after they had the course. Perhaps the lawyers in the House studied too many court cases and not enough of the Constitution.
Under the Constitution, the Senate is to act on those monetary bills originating in the House. If there is disagreement, the Senate can reject the bill or go into conference with members of the House to create a compromise. The Senate is not supposed initiate bills of expenditures, despite the fact that the current Speaker of the House of Representatives is demanding that the Senate send a budget to the House.
The President has not been totally innocent in this petty, childish exchange of who is at fault over the sequester. This law was passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President. Now, both branches of government have to live with what they created – or alter it by legislation that should be created in the House of Representatives.
Both sides are now sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the others to blink. As the sequester goes into effect, it will not be the catastrophic event many in the executive branch are describing, at least not for two or three weeks. Work days for government employees might be reduced, creating lost wages for these workers. There will be cuts in services, especially in research that is funded by the U.S. government.
On the other hand, Republican members of the House are criticizing the President for (1) creating the sequester and (2) for not sending an alternative for the House to consider. Obviously, they have not looked at the White House web site to see that the President has offered a plan.
Members of the House as well as the Senate approved the sequester bill and the Speaker even claimed that he got 98% of what he wanted when he negotiated.
Americans have heard enough. It is time both branches of government stopped the name calling and begin doing what they have been sent to Washington to do – to govern, not to think only of their party or a sub-set of that party.
This is the United States, not the United Congressional Districts.
