Posted on 05/06/2024 7:58:25 AM PDT by RandFan
@RepThomasMassie
I once had breakfast with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and about 18 other members of Congress in a private room at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington DC.
He was invited to speak on the topic of “restoring the constitutional balance of government.”
At the time of that breakfast with Scalia, John Boehner was Speaker of the House and Barack Obama was President.
There was concern that Obama was doing things we hadn’t authorized and Boehner had convinced most of my GOP colleagues there wasn’t anything we could do about it.
Scalia finished his breakfast and began to speak. He started by saying that being a referee between us and the executive branch was not his job.
He explained that his job as a jurist was to determine if there was harm and what the remedy might be.
Occasionally, constitutionality of a law was a question, but only as a side effect of Scalia’s job, which was to determine if someone had been harmed and what the remedy was.
He was adamant that his job was not to referee disagreements between the executive & the legislature.
Scalia then admonished us for asking him to fix any perceived imbalance, because after all he said, “Yours is the most powerful branch, and the tools you need are right there in the Constitution.”
/*paraphrasing from memory*/
One of my colleagues, a former representative from Arizona, complained to Scalia that impeachment was too unwieldy, impractical, and prone to political blowback.
Scalia said sternly, “I’m not talking about impeachment…”
Scalia continued, “You have the power of the purse. You fund everything you complain about. Quit funding it and the President won’t be able to do it.”
Most of my colleagues were dumbfounded. Boehner had convinced them the executive was too powerful for us.
I wanted to cheer.
I’m relating this story now because we find ourselves in the same situation today.
My colleagues, misled by our Speaker, tell you we are powerless against Biden.
They say we must win the White House or pray for the Supreme Court to save us. This is untrue.
What we need is a new Speaker willing to use our majority to wield the power of the purse for the benefit of America.
In just a few months, this Speaker has worked to give the Executive more authority and more money than even Pelosi granted.
Vacate this #uniparty Speaker.
It's easier to let the executive branch run the country than for Congress to do the work.
To be fair, most voters seem to prefer this because they are lazy bums, too.
In a nutshell, this describes the entire problem with Congress, and the GOP. There are several reasons why this condition exists; fear of bad press, deals that help their own districts or donors, and no understanding of the consequences of debt. Ultimately, our elected officials have been horrible custodians of our tax dollars, and we do not hold them accountable. In that regard, there is enough blame to go around.
My mistake, I should not have replied so quickly.
The worst thing about that statement is that he is full of sh!t, too.
This is a guy who has made a career out of complaining about unconstitutional government and unlimited Federal spending, and who walks around with a "debt clock" to make his point.
And yet in June of 2023 when he found himself in a position where he was the deciding vote in his House committee on the Biden-McCarthy debt extension deal, he voted to raise the debt limit indefinitely.
He's always been nothing more than a carnival barker who is content to "stand on principle" on the losing end of House bills that pass by margins of 420-5. When the opportunity to cast a consequential vote presented itself, the guy demonstrated that he's got the steely resolve of a wet noodle.
Nobody wants to risk their positions of power taking away funds. Sadly republicans ,economically speaking are not conservative. The funds buy votes and if one party runs on doing nothing but funding things- the other side fears losing elections thanks to attempting to be financially disciplined . Term limits solve alot of this crap. Once again- will never happen. Self preservation
I agree with Tom and MYG, AFTER Nov. 5. No distractions!
MTG!
The difficulty is that before Congress can defund the Deep State, the Deep State’s ability to bribe, threaten, etc Congress members needs to be destroyed.
We’re not there yet. And we only ever WILL be there if we can keep the R majority in the House and win the Presidency. We need honest players in the House committee chairs, to make criminal referrals to the DOJ, and we need an honest AG to clean out the corrupt DOJ and then seriously execute justice based on the referrals he/she receives.
It’s a very specific plan that has to happen.
Until it has already happened, getting rid of any particular speaker is not going to change anything and will possibly screw up the whole plan that CAN change things, if it means we lose the House majority.
IOW, no chance of success, large chance of screwing up the only chance we have.
Not worth it.
Agree- now is not the time for MTG to further erode what putative republican control we have in the House. Not now. Which is what Trump has told MTG. Massie is a jewel- who must be preserved and not have his brilliance wasted politically giving the power to Hakeem Jeffries. Crazed monolithic politically unsavvy conservatives do not stategically understand this. The timing is everything. Dems are on the ropes. Get out the vote and get rid of MORE of them. Their a@@es are hanging out everywhere. Kick em’ hard, and kick em’ out!
This is true. My former rep Rob Woodall personally related this story to myself and Mr. GG2 during a conversation at one of his townhalls. He was at that breakfast.
“Kavanaugh replaced Scalia”
________________________________
What a pathetic replacement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As Scalia said the House has the power of the purse. The majority in the house, even a majority of one, can decide not to pass an appropriation or forbid spending money on x,y, and as part of an appropriation and no one else can do anything about it.
That's the story of John Boehner's tenure as Speaker.
“The majority in the house, even a majority of one, can decide”
That requires 100% unity, without a single disagreeing vote out of several hundred.
Don’t be silly!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.