New House Chairs –All Career Politicians
Article I of our Constitution outlines and limits the responsibilities and duties of Congress. Section 8 goes into the details including law-making, regulating commerce, declaring –and paying for—war, borrowing money, ensuring protections for authors and inventors, and much more. Unfortunately, the Congress has ignored its limits as evidenced by a leviathan government consisting of massive unconstitutional departments and agencies, e.g., Education. See the much-ignored Tenth Amendment.
Doesn’t it seem that our elected representatives would be kept busy performing their prescribed duties? Oh no! Politics comes first to career pols.
This article by our friend Larry Horist details the work schedules of the House and Senate. Here are some excerpts:
“According to the 2019 Legislative Calendar, the Republican-led Senate will be in session for 158 days of the year. The Democrat-led House has reduced their time in Washington to 122 days. Surprising since the newly-empowered Democrats have been bragging about all the legislative work they must accomplish…”
“According to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the reduced time in Washington is out of deference to all the new members….next year’s schedule is focused on balancing time in Washington with time for Members to conduct work in their districts and spend time with their families.” Of course, he really means fund-raising and campaigning.
Both parties’ leadership require time be spent for fund-raising –or they aren’t considered for the prized committee assignments. Plus, they spend a lot of time campaigning and going on junkets. Don’t forget that getting reelected is Job#1 for career pols so that is where they spend the bulk of their time.
The serious work in Congress is done in Committees –or, it’s supposed to be. Committee chairmanships are earnestly sought-after for the power to raise big bucks from lobbyists as they control which bills will be considered, what investigations to undertake as part of their responsibilities.
Only Republicans have term limits for committee chairs. In the House, members are limited to a total of six years as chair or ranking member. The Democrats still use seniority to determine the chairman, therefore, they appoint “the worst of a bad lot.” The average tenure of these Democrat Committee Chairs averages over 30 years. They are appointed on political tenure, not on ability or experience –and it shows—to the detriment of the nation.
Here’s the result of the 2018 elections when the Democratic Party won control of the House:
Intelligence Committee — Adam Schiff who, in his 20+ years of elected politics has built a reputation for dishonesty. See his Poster. He wants to use his subpoena power to probe Trump’s ties to Russia. “One of the issues that has continued to concern me [is] the persistent allegations that the Trumps, when they couldn’t get money from U.S. banks, were laundering Russian money,” Schiff said. He also said that he plans to investigate Trump’s financial ties to Saudi Arabia. “Is his personal financial interest driving U.S. policy in the Gulf?” he asked. His mission is to destroy the President. And the intelligence purpose is shunted aside.
Judiciary Committee — Jerry Nadler This is the committee where the impeachment process would start. See Nadler’s Poster. Nadler revealed plans to impeach Justice Brett Kavanaugh for alleged perjury and impeach President Trump for collusion with Russia. There was no mention of those who actually did collude with Russia –the DNC, Hillary, et al.
Financial Services — Maxine Waters See her Poster Mad Max. She said she intends to follow the “Trump money trail,” starting with Deutsche Bank —that lends money to Trump and also does business with his son-in-law Jared Kushner — and “suspicious activity reports” filed with financial crimes officials.
Oversight Committee — Elijah Cummings (D-MD) See his Poster at https://posterchildrenfortermlimits.com/democrats-gave-blacks-the-vote/. He kicked off his part in the anti-Trump campaign being carried out by House Committee chairmen with the hearing featuring admitted liar, Michael Cohen. He promises to investigate Trump’s personal finances including his hotels. The National Legal and Policy Center calls Cummings corrupt, and they have filed a complaint with the IRS –we report on that in his Poster.
Ways and Means Committee — Richard Neal (D-MA) hopes to get his hands on President Trump’s tax returns. His 30 years tenure in the House qualified him to be chair of the most powerful committee as all bills regarding taxation must go through it. Lobbyists pay the big bucks to influence these career pols because when it comes to complex spending legislation, every detail counts for something. Rep. Neal gives it to them by voting for every tax and spend measure.
Foreign Affairs Committee — Eliot Engel (D-NY), plans to dig into Trump’s connections abroad and whether his business interests might be influencing the administration’s policies. He should be considering relations of the United States with foreign nations like Venezuela at this time, protection of citizens abroad, and United Nations organizations among other responsibilities.
Energy and Commerce — Frank Pallone(D-NJ) plans to attack the Trump administration for denying that man-made climate change even exists. His emphasis will be on the Environmental Protection Agency which has rolled back Obama-era regulations governing coal and methane while also disbanding an air pollution review panel.
Natural Resources — Raúl Grijalva(D-AZ) is supposed consider legislation and oversees federal conservation and species protection programs but he plans to investigate both policy and ethics matters from Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke’s tenure. Zinke proposed the largest rollback of federal land protections in US history and opened nearly all US coastal waters to offshore drilling.
Science, Space, and Technology — Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) says “you can expect to see a renewed focus on climate change,” at her committee which has jurisdiction over non-defense federal scientific research and development. It has complete jurisdiction over the following federal agencies: NASA, NSF, NIST, and the OSTP. The Committee also has authority over R&D activities at the Department of Energy, the EPA, FAA, NOAA, the DOT, the NWS, the DHS and the U.S. Fire Administration.
The Democrat chairs are not taking their committees’ responsibilities seriously as they are instead concentrating their resources to destroy the duly-elected president and his administration. Their personal hatred of this president and his free market policies cloud their constitutional duties.
