The Misuse Of The Power Of The Purse

About 40 conservative congressmen (known as members of the Freedom Caucus) & the majority of their constituents have become impatient with the lack of results obtained since Republicans took majority control of both the House & Senate following the midterm election of 2014.  This impatience led to the outright dissatisfaction that forced House Speaker John Boehner to resign not only his speakership but also his seat in Congress effective October 30. 

 

Speaker Boehner & Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were not able to devise, let alone implement, a plan that would repeal & replace ObamaCare, stop BO's nuclear weapons deal with Iran, or defund Planned Parenthood following several undercover videos that showed the barbaric taking of organs from fetuses & selling them to the highest bidder.  This has infuriated the Freedom Caucus members as well as members of the Tea Party Caucus, the Liberty Caucus, & the Republican Study Committee.

 

It is very upsetting that all of these things happened under a Republican controlled Congress after it was promised that repealing & replacing ObamaCare would just be the start of setting things right after the Republicans held the House in 2014 & also took majority control of the Senate.  And it certainly was understood that none of the other type incidents – Iran deal & Planned Parenthood tactics – would ever be allowed to stand by this congressional majority.

 

Now the aforementioned politicians surely knew they were overpromising & with a high degree of certainty so did their constituents.  

 

First, the 54 to 46 Republican majority in the Senate needs six Democrats to cooperate to get to the 60 vote supermajority required to bring a measure like any of the above three to cloture – otherwise the measure dies in the Senate deliberative body labyrinth of endless filibuster debate with no positive corrective action whatsoever for the nation. 

 

Next it takes 67 senators & 290 congressmen (including 43 Democrats if all 247 Republicans voted in lockstep) to override BO's certain veto on all of the above three issues – an even harder task.  So a simple majority of both chambers of Congress will not be sufficient to control any of the above three issues based on the numbers. 

 

But the 40 conservative congressmen & talk-radio showmen like Sean Hannity believe they have a winning hand in invoking the Appropriations Claus of the Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Clause 7) which is the cornerstone of Congress's power of the purse function that limits spending of the federal government – in this latest case defunding Planned Parenthood restricts BO's access to the funds formerly subsidized to Planned Parenthood. 

 

The strategy in the defunding Planned Parenthood matter is that a Continuing Resolution (CR) will be submitted without any funding for Planned Parenthood & when BO refuses to sign the measure the government will start to shut down & BO & the Democrats will be blamed.

 

But Boehner & McConnell would have none of this & by coupling every Democrat (except two who didn't vote in the House) & enough statist Republicans the CR passed both the House & Senate thereby funding the government keeping federal agencies operating until December 11 when Congress gets to do it all over again.  The CR did not include any Planned Parenthood cuts or defunding meaning it is merely short term legislation passed by Congress & signed by BO to keep the government open.  The CR does nothing to solve the problems of BO & the Republican groups mentioned above which will resurface again on December 11 when Boehner will no longer be the Speaker.

 

In effect Boehner & McConnell have become the leaders of the Democrats instead of the Republicans.  See the list of 151 congressmen & 20 senators who voted "nay" below.  If your Republican congressmen or senators are not on the list below they voted with Boehner, McConnell, & the Democrats to fund Planned Parenthood @ current levels of over $1 million per day.

 

Now are Sean Hannity & the aforementioned 171 conservative Republicans correct in thinking more of a fight should have been made by the Republican majority Congress by invoking the power of the purse – they claim this is what the Founders & Framers of the Constitution intended?

 

It is certainly true that Congress has the power of the purse but this function was used much differently in 1787 than it is today.  When the Constitution was written there was virtually no money being spent; in fact the only two spending functions of the federal government (i.e., Congress) under the Constitution were to pay the debts of the country & to provide for the common defense & general welfare of the United States (meaning the national welfare of the entire country & not local or regional benefits & certainly not to establish a government giveaway welfare state like we have today). 

 

Contrast this original intended meaning of the power of the purse with the emergence today of 126 welfare programs identified by the Cato Institute.  Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation determined that the average middle class family receives over $7,000 more in benefits than they pay in federal taxes each year.  The Pew Research Center reports that more than 65% of millenials (people born between 1981 & 2005) support reducing military spending in order to preserve spending on these welfare programs – source Mark Levin, Plunder & Deceit, Page 157.

 

Based on the above it is obvious that the majority of Americans are more interested in receiving government benefits than they are about being financially responsible.  Accordingly, their elected representatives have to be sure they know what they are supporting.  The graph below indicates that an overwhelming majority of people oppose cutting the funding to Planned Parenthood so conservatives (whether in the House, Senate, or talk radio) who are advocating shutting down the government over this issue should take pause to consider where they are in their political lives before continuing with this approach which will be reenacted @ the December 11 CR deadline or the next debt ceiling confrontation scheduled for early November.

 

click on graph to enlarge

 

It is not about picking battles – defunding Planned Parenthood is certainly a worthwhile battle in helping to restore the virtue, morality, & integrity of the country that slips farther away every day - but rather picking how to fight these type of battles so the statist mindset in America can be turned around in order to preserve our standard of living.

 

Remaining silent for months @ a time & then strategizing how to shut down the government @ the last minute point of brinksmanship is a losing approach for Republicans that should be replaced by people who are prepared & dedicated to be long term consistent living examples who can explain & demonstrate the benefits the libertarian principles the country was founded upon & originally followed provide to those of us lucky enough to be born & raised in America.

 

To reverse the growing statist mindset in America the focus must clearly be on trying to reach the 47% of people that Mitt Romney described as "dependent on government, believe they are victims entitled to government handouts, & pay no income tax"; & by reclaiming the education of our children to be responsible citizens who understand that the free enterprise system in America has been so badly & intentionally deformed by BO & the Democrats – virtually beyond recognition – that life has become desperate for far too many people.  

 

To understand how America went from the original mindset where people rebuilt cities that had been destroyed by fires, hurricanes, & earthquakes without asking for government assistance to a mindset of "I deserve, I'm entitled," & "its my right" we must start by seeing how government has increasingly crept into our lives over the decades since America's founding - & all for the worse.

 

Part of our problem can be explained by the busy lives people live that does not allow time for them to know what is happening to themselves or our country. Most such people are uninformed & many do not feel they have any skin in the game or even realize that a game is going on. Now it is human nature to not want to have skin in the game if you are able to play the game & either don't have any skin in the game or think you don't. But we all do & it is the job of those of us who know what our future holds to convince the uninformed that they really do have skin in the game in that their entire standard of existence is @ stake when the government gravy train stops abruptly.

 

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 528 (Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)

      H R 719      YEA-AND-NAY      30-Sep-2015      4:57 PM
      QUESTION:  On Concurring in the Senate Adt to the House Adt to the Senate Adt
      BILL TITLE: TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act of 2015

	YEAS	NAYS	PRES	NV
REPUBLICAN	91	151		4
DEMOCRATIC	186			2
INDEPENDENT
TOTALS	277	151		6

 

--- NAYS    151 ---

Abraham Aderholt Allen Amash Babin Barr Barton Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Blum Boustany Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Buck Bucshon Burgess Byrne Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chabot Chaffetz Clawson (FL) Collins (GA) Conaway Crawford DeSantis DesJarlais Duffy Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Ellmers (NC) Emmer (MN) Farenthold Fincher Fleischmann Fleming Flores Forbes Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Garrett Gibbs Gohmert Goodlatte Gosar Gowdy Granger

Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Griffith Grothman Guinta Guthrie Harper Harris Hartzler Hensarling Hice, Jody B. Hill Holding Huelskamp Huizenga (MI) Hultgren Hunter Hurt (VA) Jenkins (KS) Johnson, Sam Jones Jordan Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) King (IA) Labrador LaHood Lamborn Latta Long Loudermilk Love Luetkemeyer Lummis Marchant Marino Massie McCaul McClintock Meadows Messer Mica Miller (FL) Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Mulvaney Murphy (PA) Neugebauer Nugent Olson

Palazzo Palmer Pearce Perry Pittenger Poe (TX) Pompeo Posey Price, Tom Ratcliffe Renacci Ribble Rice (SC) Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rokita Rooney (FL) Roskam Ross Rothfus Rouzer Russell Salmon Sanford Schweikert Sensenbrenner Sessions Shuster Smith (MO) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Stewart Stutzman Wagner Walberg Walker Walorski Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Westmoreland Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Yoder Yoho Young (IN)

---- NOT VOTING    6 ---

Brady (TX) Culberson

Hudson Kelly (IL)

Meeks Reichert

 

Measure Number:

H.R. 719 (TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act of 2015 )

Measure Title:

A bill to require the Transportation Security Administration to conform to existing Federal law and regulations regarding criminal investigator positions, and for other purposes.

Vote Counts:	YEAs	78
	NAYs	20
	Not Voting	2

 

NAYs ---20
Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Coats (R-IN) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX)	Heller (R-NV) Inhofe (R-OK) Lankford (R-OK) Lee (R-UT) Moran (R-KS) Paul (R-KY) Risch (R-ID)	Sasse (R-NE) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA)

Not Voting - 2
Graham (R-SC)	Rubio (R-FL)

 

Reference post:  Boehner Elected Speaker - Not A Good Start For The New Congress