Republican Congress’ Failure

INTERIM ASSESSMENT from the Citizens’ Mandate May 18, 2015 with last November’s election of a new Republican Congress, voters demonstrated they wanted Obama’s fundamental transformation to stop. In January, a group of more than 50 conservative leaders signed the “Citizens’ Mandate” to remind the Republicans of citizen expectations.

Many Republicans, and their leaders, campaigned on the promise to change Washington, show a contrast and challenge President Obama’s governance, if only the voters would give Republicans control of the legislative branch.

Citizens expected Republicans new to Congress to:

• End Executive branch overreach,
• Restore Constitutional balance of power among the three branches of government,
• Bring an end to the perennially unpopular Affordable Care Act/Obamacare,
• Stop the President’s end-run of Congress with his executive amnesty initiatives,
• Hold the Executive branch accountable for its myriad abuses of power and its national security failures, both foreign and domestic, and
• Put the interests of the United States of America first among nations.

So, what has Republican leadership done with their power since January 2015?

• Funded executive amnesty: Instead of stopping executive over reach using their power as a co-equal branch of government, the Republican Congress actually funded Obama’s executive amnesty.

• Republicans first passed the Cromnibus in December to avoid the fight to defund amnesty saying that severing out funding for the Department of Homeland Security in March would be the more effective way to combat Obama’s policies. Then Republicans seemed incapable of driving a unified, clear message to leverage eroding support of the President among Senate Democrats, when polls showed vast popular support for restraining the President.  Now, Republicans are avoiding any effort to defund amnesty in the new DHS funding bill for this fiscal year.

• Continued Obamacare: Regarding stopping the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare, key Senate Republicans actually stopped a vital investigation into fraud and are looking for ways to save Obamacare subsides for themselves.
• Jeopardized national security: Instead of safeguarding our homeland, Congress has done nothing to address the security risks from both our legal and illegal immigration.
• Ceded away treaty power on a nuke deal with Iran: Most Senate Republicans signed a letter that expressed serious concerns with President Obama’s appeasing of Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism.  But, when push came to shove, almost the entire Senate rolled over and blocked consideration and ultimately adopted a bill that actually reduces the role Congress can play in enforcing, or lifting, tough sanctions on Iran as the mullahs continue their pursuit of nuclear weapons.
• Continued excessive federal spending: Passed a so called “balanced budget,” but then immediately blew through their new-found fiscal responsibility by passing a healthcare bill that would add $500 billion to the deficit over the next 20 years.
• Undermined faith-based agenda: As a whole, the Republican–led Congress has refused to pass bills overturning the District of Columbia’s violation of federal legislation assuring religious liberty and restrictions on abortion.
• Helped Obama: Instead of holding the Executive branch accountable for its abuse of power, the Senate confirmed an Attorney General who thinks there is a constitutional basis for Obama’s executive amnesty.
• Continued federal education. Instead of acknowledging and welcoming mounting, bipartisan grassroots opposition to egregious federal control over education – notably involving a growing civil disobedience movement to opt-out of federal testing, the House and Senate seem bent on reauthorizing, with bipartisan support, a major education statute that preserves the fundamentals of No Child Left Behind/Race to the Top/Common Core.  Meanwhile, Senate Republicans joined with Democrats to expand the federal government's reach into pre-K education.

• Punished conservative champions. Republicans started the new Congress with the removal of conservatives from key committees; then sat back while leadership-affiliated groups ran ads against conservatives (discussed here). The Senate, and Leader McConnell in particular, campaigned on the promise of an open amendment process. But when conservative amendments do not fit into the perceived necessity of “governing” or avoiding appearing extreme, the Republican leadership routinely works with Democrats to box out conservatives.
• Neglected congressional oversight. Despite a vast array of needed oversight of federal actions and spending, no Republican John Dingell or Henry Waxman who could capably challenge such conduct has yet surfaced!  Benghazi, IRS, EPA, the refugee resettlement program, the penetration of the U.S. government by the Muslim Brotherhood, taxpayer funded ideologues eroding American Exceptionalism and more await scrutiny.  Best oversight efforts to date have, surprisingly, been done by an effective outside group, Judicial Watch, who has no subpoena or constitutional power!

Armed with this new growing record, how do you think Congress is doing with respect to the mandate that voters gave them this past November? Are they “making sure your voice is heard” as Senate Republicans are touting in this self-congratulatory graphic (below) being distributed to announce their accomplishments in 100 days?

Source: Citizens Mandate

PLEASE let us know if you can sign this letter by 5:00 pm ET Friday, May 15 by emailing Gayle Trotter at gayle.trotter@gmail.com Tell her how you want to be listed, affiliated and your best contact email or phone number.

3 pm Draft – 5/13/15/ signatures started joining last night!