Compare what President Trump has accomplished since his inauguration (in front of such a huge crowd!) to what Republicans in Congress have accomplished.
In the past three weeks, Trump has filled the White House, sent a dozen Cabinet nominees to the Senate, forced Boeing to lower the price of a government contract, urged American CEOs to move their plants to the United States, imposed a travel ban on terrorists, met with foreign leaders and nominated a Supreme Court justice, to name just a few of his actions.
(And our hero still finds time to torment the media with his tweets!)
What were congressional Republicans doing? Scrapbooking?
More than 90 percent of Republican congressmen retained their positions after the 2016 election, so you can cross “filling an entire branch of government” off the list. Only the Senate approves nominations, which it does at a snail’s pace, so they have plenty of free time — and the House has no excuse.
Where is the repeal of Obamacare? Where are the hearings with middle class Americans without health insurance because it was made illegal by Obamacare?
The House passed six Obamacare repeals while Obama was president, and there was no chance they would be signed into law. Republicans were full of energy and zeal then! But the moment Trump became president, repeals came to a screeching halt.
After the (huge!) inauguration, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a plan to repeal Obamacare… in 200 days. In fact, they gave their legislative agenda an inspiring title: “The 200-Day Plan.”
TWO HUNDRED DAYS!
What was in the last six repeals of Obamacare? If we checked, would we find “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” carefully typed a million times? Seriously, what does a day look like for Paul Ryan?
This is the Silence of the Congress of the Lambs. They are completely mute, emerging from the House gym or from their three-hour lunches only to shout at the press about Trump.
To the delight of the media, these scared little lambs are terrified of almost everything Trump does. They are especially vocal about Trump’s fleeting travel ban on seven terrorist countries – as decided by the Obama administration (and anyone else who hasn’t been in Finland’s deep freeze for the past decade).
Like the six Obamacare repeals, the refugee ban had already been written and passed by one chamber of Congress. And then suddenly: Silence of the Lambs. McConnell and Ryan are hiding under their desks as Trump is attacked from all sides.
Once upon a time, 15 long months ago, congressional Republicans had no problem with a blanket ban on Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Not for a mere three months, like Trump’s order — but permanently, unless the FBI director, the secretary of Homeland Security, and the director of national intelligence personally certify that a particular refugee poses no threat to the U.S.
The bill passed the House of Representatives with an overwhelming, veto-proof majority, including 47 Democrats. It then went to the Senate to die.
But when President Trump imposed a relatively bland, three-month ban on immigrants from Syria, Iraq and five other terrorist states, the same Republicans who voted for an open-ended refugee ban spent time calling reporters to condemn Trump.
A little over a year ago, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, boasted in a press release that he had introduced a refugee ban into the House of Representatives, calling it legislation that would “protect Americans from ISIS.”
But when it came time for Trump’s three-month break, McCaul told the Post that Trump’s order “went too far.”
I think the ISIS problem has simply disappeared. (Or maybe we should check with Mrs. McCaul, since her family’s money makes Rep. McCaul one of the wealthiest members of Congress.)
Rep. Charlie Dent, R-N.J., who voted for the House of Representatives’ enduring refugee ban, demanded that Trump immediately reverse his travel ban, blabbing about the “many, many nuances of immigration policy” — which he must have learned during one of his congressional trips to a Las Vegas casino.
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., said Trump’s order “oversteps the mark and undermines our constitutional system.” Apparently, it suddenly dawned on him that “it’s not legal to ban immigrants based on nationality,” even though he voted to ban refugees based on nationality just 15 months earlier. (I’m OK with that, as long as the Syrians, Somalis and Yemenis are sent to Justin’s street after being told he supports same-sex marriage.)
Senators Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., both took to The Washington Post with this refreshingly original point: NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE TERRORISTS! Why, thank you, senators! Where would the Republican Party be without you?
The Post also quoted spokesmen — spokesmen! — for Republican senators Mike Lee of Utah, Rob Portman of Ohio and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who complained that they had not been briefed on Trump’s order. The senators themselves were too busy to speak to the press because — wait, what were they doing? Words With Friends? Decoupage?
Since the election, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., has been busy honing his anti-Trump quotes to garner praise from an admiring media. He railed against Trump’s executive order, saying it was “badly implemented” and that he had to learn about it from reporters. (I wonder why.)
This is the moment we have waited our whole lives for, but Republicans in Congress refuse to obey the will of the people. Their only driving obsession is seeing Trump fail.
I am not currently calling on these useless, narcissistic, Trump-bashing Republicans to be defeated in their re-election bids, but they are on my watch list. To clear themselves, they could start by calling The Washington Post and passing one of six bills to repeal Obamacare.
