Rebuke of principles

I wonder what our founding fathers would say about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s continued refusal to bring to the floor a vote on any proposal to reopen the government that President Trump doesn’t explicitly support. What, they’d ask, is the purpose and role of separate legislative branches of government if one of those bodies predicates its actions on a sign-off by the president of the United States? Isn’t that a rejection of the system of checks and balances upon which our nation was founded?

What is especially troublesome about McConnell’s refusal to call for a vote on the government shutdown is that the framers of the Constitution anticipated that the president and Congress might not always agree; hence, they implemented a specific mechanism by which Congress can override the president’s veto and in this case it appears there are sufficient votes in both the Senate and House to override a Trump veto.

McConnell has shirked his legislative duty. His behavior constitutes a rebuke of constitutional principles, and for that he should be held accountable by his fellow senators and the voters in Kentucky. Richard Cherwitz, Austin, Texas