Letter to the Editor: Let’s Get Our Government Working Again

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to take the Republican Party seriously: After railing for years against increasing the deficit, under their watch the deficit is ballooning. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offers Democrats a civic lesson that any legislation requires the president’s signature, which ignores the fact that the House and Senate, if they have the will to do so, have the power to override the president’s veto. And now, after railing for eight years against the previous president’s alleged abuses of his presidential authority, Republicans have allowed the volatile whims of our current president to disrupt the necessary work of governing our nation.  

Although border security is of course a concern, informed individuals understand that a physical wall is only a small part of the much bigger problems of people overstaying their visas, drug traffickers using legal ports of entry and the mail, reforming a broken immigration system and finding a realistic solution to deal with those immigrants who are already here. In the meantime, the hundreds of thousands of government workers are being held hostage and the actual work of government – for example, I just received notice of some federal court hearings being canceled indefinitely due to furloughed personnel – has been curtailed in order to satisfy this president’s promise to his base, although I note he also promised that Mexico would pay for it – and be happy to do so – and not us.

If Republicans are serious about governing, they will cease deferring to the capricious demands of the executive branch and work with the other side of the aisle in the Senate to exercise their Constitutionally mandated co-equal powers of governance to get our government working again.

David Clowers

Egg Harbor, Wis.