Checks and Balances

Our constitution is an amazing document. The institutions of government it created remain relevant 223 years later. This particular Congress, however, has made the system of checks and balances irrelevant. It has done so by refusing to meet its obligations to enact laws, guard the pursestrings and, most importantly, provide oversight and accountability to the Executive branch.

Allowing the President to nullify any law it enacts by issuing a signing statement declaring he won't enforce any or all of a statute has neutered Congress. Basically Bush has cut their balls off and they allowed him to do so. Congress could react to their plight by using its constitutional control of the purse. If they began refusing to fund programs like the war and insisted, for example, that the costs of the war be included in the budget much change could be enacted and many attitudes changed. The power of the purse is mighty.

The area of most concern is oversight and accountability. Almost no hearings, almost no subpoenas issued, almost no concern over the extent of warrantless searches of Americans in spite of the President's own admissions that he has committed these acts. No effort whatsoever to even discover the scope of the programs, their legality or their constitutionality before, instead, simply legalizing all of them.

Not one Administration official has been held accountable for anything. This abdication of power and authority is mind numbing. Congressman Barney Frank put it this way:

"This could not have happened without the collaboration of a supine
Congress," Frank said. "Never in American history has Congress been so willing
to give away its constitutional function." Many committees have all but
abandoned their traditional oversight role, failing to conduct the
investigations or raise the questions that hold the executive branch
accountable.

When you vote for your Congressman or woman this year remember these words. When you meet them on the campaign trail ask them why they've become so supine and why they don't believe in oversight and accountability. Ask them what purpose Congress has in light of their refusal to even stand up for their constitutional duties? Ask them if this Congress was even relevant. Just don't ask to see their balls, Bush has them in a freezer in the White House basement.