Congress’ dysfunction
Letter writer Larry Craig claims that congressional Democrats want bills to be as large as possible, while Republicans think they should be small and focused (“Parties’ different ideas,” Dec. 31). That’s really not the case.
President Joe Biden wanted to address support for Ukraine and immigration reform separately. It’s the House Republicans who tied the issues together and are refusing to consider one without the other.
As much as some Republicans argue in favor of individual spending bills, they’ve already backed themselves into a corner through bickering internally and trying to score political points.
Our government is currently funded through a continuing resolution rather than an actual budget, because House Republicans can’t get their act together. The Constitution requires all spending and revenue bills to be passed by the House before they’re sent to the Senate.
Congress faces a Jan. 19 deadline, when parts of the federal government will shut down without a budget or a continuing resolution. House Speaker Mike Johnson, during a recent photo op at the border, suggested Republicans would use this deadline as leverage in getting what they want on immigration.
House Republicans are so dysfunctional that it took them 15 rounds of voting to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. After they ousted him, they spent three weeks squabbling with each other before handing the gavel to Johnson.
Republicans are also wasting time trying to impeach Biden for having a messed-up son. They want to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of homeland security, over the border issue. Neither of these cases meets the Constitution’s requirement for impeachment: “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Immigration reform will have to be a compromise bill that covers many issues, with no one getting everything they want. Passing individual bills is unlikely, given the levels of distrust in the nation’s Capitol these days.
Craig is correct when he writes that smaller, more focused bills would be a better approach on legislation — yet that’s not possible with House Republicans standing in the way.