WASHINGTON TIMES: DAVID BOSSIE: Sens. Tuberville and Vance holding Biden admin accountable
In our system of checks and balances, the Senate has the duty to provide advice and consent for executive branch appointments and nominations.
It’s important to remember that not only does Congress control our nation’s purse strings, but it also gets to decide which individuals get to spend the money once appropriated. At a time when the Biden administration is abusing power and flouting the Constitution in order to impose its radical agenda on America, the legislative branch must rise to the occasion and do everything in its power to fight back.
The separation of powers is a critical feature of our constitutional republic because it guards against our country sliding into a dictatorship.
The president can’t unilaterally choose whomever he or she wants to serve at the highest levels of our government. At this moment in history, it’s imperative that the informal “hold” rule in the Senate become a more common occurrence because of the dire financial and political situation we find ourselves in. A hold can be employed by any senator to temporarily stop a nomination or as a way to change policy or object to the way an agency is operating.
President Biden and his predecessor Barack Obama both made clear that their overall goal is to fundamentally transform the United States of America into something unrecognizable.
Unfortunately, that socialist nightmare is playing out before our very eyes. Centralized government planners are robbing Americans of their God-given liberties on a daily basis, open border edicts are crushing our national sovereignty, proven law-and-order policies designed to keep our neighborhoods safe are branded as racist, and militant “woke” culture is corroding our sacred institutions.
It’s high time that the legislative branch started flexing some muscle before the monster that the executive branch deems it no longer useful. So it’s fitting to illustrate the work of Sens. Tommy Tuberville and J.D. Vance as they confront the freedom-destroying behavior of the Biden administration and encourage others to follow suit.
Mr. Tuberville has put a hold on all Department of Defense nominations and promotions due to the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing members of the military and their families if they have to travel out of state in order to have an abortion
Mr. Tuberville’s principled stance is part of a larger effort to push our Defense Department to focus more on national security and less on jumping through hoops in order to appease the radical left by promoting a “woke” agenda that includes the extreme position of advocating abortion without restrictions.
Mr. Tuberville is concerned that the Pentagon has lost focus of its core mission to keep Americans safe, and he’s using this hold to sound the alarm. When Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is seen as being more effective in promoting LGBTQ pride than confronting threats from China, an unhinged Vladimir Putin and an Iran as dangerous as ever, it’s time for a course correction.
The same goes for the Department of Justice under the feckless leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland. Mr. Vance is rightly concerned that Mr. Biden’s DOJ has grown far too politicized and has cultivated a dangerous two-tiered system of justice that depends on what side of the political aisle you’re on. Sensible Americans look at the treatment of former President Donald Trump compared with that of Mr. Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and they’re wondering what’s going on. Mr. Vance listened to their legitimate concerns and put a hold on all Justice Department nominees.
The politicization of justice that has manifested itself in the age of Mr. Trump has been allowed to take hold because the mainstream media has chosen sides in the fight instead of calling balls and strikes impartially.
We would live in a different world today if the so-called journalists in the legacy media reported the truth about the Trump-Russia hoax and forced some accountability. But they chose poorly, and now we have an administration that answers to no one prosecuting their top political opponent. There are a lot of people in South Florida right now who thought they left this sort of dictatorial behavior behind in Cuba.
When it comes to opportunities for further holds, senators should pick a department and dive in.
Government agencies don’t exist to impose a totalitarian “woke” agenda using the taxpayer dollars of hardworking Americans who oppose what they’re doing with every fiber of their being. The executive branch juggernaut is abusing power at an alarming rate and must be reined in by the legislative branch — with a renewed sense of urgency — now.
The future of the country we know and love is hanging in the balance. Thankfully, Messrs. Tuberville and Vance are using the power afforded to them to help save the republic.
• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.
