Even in recess, House GOP priorities are all screwed up

Following an unusual situation unproductive and It was chaotic Congress in 2023 and the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this month. Not a shred of evidence The Republican-led House of Representatives placed him on leave because he had committed a high crime or misdemeanor. During their two-week recess, Republican leaders once again ramped up their baseless and pointless partisan witch hunt, making no tangible progress on avoiding a government shutdown, securing the border with Mexico, and military aid to Ukraine. was not seen.

In their absence, Special Counsel David Weiss, originally appointed by President Trump, Indictment of Alexander Smirnov For lying to FBI agents that Ukrainian company Burisma paid $5 million each to protect Joe Biden and Hunter Biden “through their fathers” in 2015 and 2016. [then Vice President] From all kinds of problems. ” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) quoted This claim by a “reliable FBI informant” justifies launching an impeachment inquiry against President Biden in September. This “reliable source of confidential information” is Said Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) offered “the most corroborating evidence we have.” Fox News cited the case more than 2,600 times in an article about the “Biden Crime Family.” Sean Hannity promoted this claim on 85 segments of his prime-time show. “It’s impossible to ignore the evidence record,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). declared During December.

None of these interrogators mentioned FBI Director Christopher Wray. warned The House Oversight and Accountability Committee said the documents they requested to see do not “verify” the claims and “do not establish their reliability or compare them to other information verified by the FBI. ” claimed that it contained “unverified reports.” Or that Bill Barr dismissed as unsubstantiated an allegation first raised when he was attorney general.

Weiss’s accusation conclusion He said Smirnov’s story was “a fabrication, a compilation of otherwise unremarkable business meetings that actually took place at a later date.” It turns out that Mr. Smirnov did not meet with Burisma officials until 2017, when Mr. Biden was no longer vice president.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) faces the collapse of a key pillar of his fact-starved case. maintained He plans to vote to remove Biden from office, but won’t “lose sleep over whether Biden will be impeached because I know the Senate won’t convict.” My job was never to impeach. ” Comer now claims his purpose was to lay the evidence base for legislation to ban influence peddling, but he appears to have been passionate about the subject during the Donald Trump era. It didn’t look like it.

In what appears to be a desperate attempt to discover or fabricate something, the Comer Committee conducted an eight-hour closed-door questioning of the president’s brother, James Biden, during a break.

Meanwhile, House was lazing around, mischief About urgent priorities. Congress approved the plan after McCarthy and President Biden agreed to set this year’s discretionary spending at $1.66 trillion to avoid a catastrophic debt default. House Republicans in the division refused to abide by the agreement. The impasse led to a “continuing resolution” extending funding at current levels to avoid a government shutdown. After CR passed with Democratic support, several MAGA extremists ousted Speaker McCarthy and shut down the House for two weeks because Republicans could not agree on a replacement.

Two more CRs followed. The third deadline ends on March 1st for some government agencies and March 8th for others. If the budget is not approved and signed by the president, parts of the government will be shut down. Mandatory spending cuts, opposed by most lawmakers, are expected to go into effect in April.

A few weeks ago, Republicans supported a bipartisan legislative package that combined border security with aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. was praised The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board said it sank Trump’s decision to overturn it in the Senate, saying it had silenced “long-standing Republican priorities.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had called for such a bill, said it would be “killed on arrival” in the House of Commons.

After 70 senators (including 22 Republicans) I voted for House Speaker Johnson announced that he has introduced standalone legislation to support Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. declared In October, Congress declared “we will not abandon Ukraine.” declared “The Republican-led House will not be at a loss to pass a foreign aid bill that does nothing to ensure the security of the U.S.-Mexico border.” Amid reports that Alexei Navalny has been killed in a Russian penal colony and that Ukrainian forces are being forced to withdraw from major cities due to a lack of ammunition, Johnson also said: called Praises “united opposition” to Russian aggression.

science fiction writer Frank Herbert I have written Good governance depends on “the personal qualities of those who govern.” The machinery of government is always subject to the will of those who control it. Therefore, the most important element of government is how leaders are chosen. ”

Unfortunately, good governance is in short supply these days. And many voters seem willing to elect leaders whose character should not be respected.

Glenn C. Altshuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor Emeritus of American Studies at Cornell University.