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.
Massie is quite possibly the last great conservative in congress (if not the whole of the federal government [Thomas and Alito excepted]).
Justice Scalia, the one who was disappeared, in favor of Anthony Kennedy? I’m surprised his name is still allowed here.
Kavanaugh replaced Scalia
Yep, shut down government and make the executive branch and the senate come to the table.
Congress has the power to shut down expenditures being wielded by Biden. He has NOT the power to do it. The Treasury (run by Yellen) is party to this theft of public money.
Cut them off. Cut off the funding. Either make Johnson do it or hold onto him for now and replace the Congress members who continue to support him
It doesn’t matter who the Speaker is. Waiting for those who have never defended constitutionalism to defend constitutionalism is the definition of insanity. Creative alternatives are needed.
A one vote majority, minority in the Senate and opposed by the President does NOT give the Speaker the ability to control government!
"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."
[[Boehner had convinced them the executive was too powerful for us. ]]
Can’t beleive that that surrender monkey was ever in the position he was!
Scalia was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986. Kennedy was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1988. Scalia died on February 13, 2016. Kennedy retired from the Court in July 2018.
You know, conspiracy theories rarely gain any significant traction when the basic facts are misrepresented. That is to say, you have to work a bit harder than that, if you want to get anywhere with it.
Imagine if Robert Bork would have been on the Supreme Court and not pushed out by Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy
Actually, Gorsuch replaced Scalia, and he is an Anthony Kennedy disciple, and so was Kavanaugh. Gorsuch actually was on the Court with Kennedy for a year, and was significantly to the left of him of Kennedy. Then Kavanaugh replaced Kennedy. And just like that, the Scalia legacy was stamped out.
Yes, imagine.
[[I’m relating this story now because we find ourselves in the same situation today. ]]
And the swamp remains as deep and destructive to our nation as ever!
What conspiracy theory did I say? I can’t help if you misunderstood what I said.
Think about the quality of the last 4-6 GOP speakers. You'd probably get better quality from picking 4-6 people randomly from the top 100 golfers.
How is this to be accomplished with a 1 vote majority, and a bunch of squishy Republicans?
Speaker Johnson cannot just order it to happen.
Yes, the House of Representatives has the power of the purse. But Republicans have a very tenuous hold on the House, and they do not have control of the old Media and tech oligarchs, who are undercutting them at every turn. They also do not control the Senate.
So, yes, we need a strong majority in the House, and we need to build more Conservative media as a defense against the constant propaganda onslaught by the old media and tech oligarchs.
we can’t change things because too many people would be hurt. no one wants to end the party just because bills are due.
america=one big ass ponzi scheme
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