The president must tell Congress: “Hey kids, recess is over; back to work!” Is that legal use of executive authority? Illegal? Who cares? And what fun to watch the Dems and lefty media that constantly accuse Mr. Trump of dictator-esque behavior go full bonkeroonie when he uses his exec. power to cancel the Congressional vacay-palooza.
Which must happen because Congress is running out of time and voters are running out of patience. The Congress must get off its swing set and get down to business. If Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell won’t scrub that five-day Fourth of July BBQ-and-Frisbee-fest and the obscenely excessive five-week August holiday, the president must. Our elected representatives must get real about doing the job voters elected the Republican Congress and President to do.
Because your voters, once diehard fans, are getting antsy about your ditheringly weird inability to get ‘er done. You have four huge final exams to pass before Americans’ faith in you vaporizes like Hillary’s electoral votes on November 4: Pass the American Healthcare Act (AHCA) in the Senate; pass tax reform to bring jobs back to the U.S. and let Americans keep more of their salaries; pass the president’s budget to trim overblown welfare programs and boost military funding; pass a responsible debt ceiling bill that cuts spending.
Whew. You’ll need to use every nano-second of that five-week August mega-vacay to achieve victory on all these issues because Democrats will be hard at work delaying and obstructing President Trump’s agenda with their usual crafty maneuvering on the Hill. Don’t let them get away with it.
Stand up and act like the majority you are. This is your chance to show you’re serious about the big issues the American public is serious about. Thanks to President Trump, citizens are now more hopeful about their families’ futures and the nation’s chances for renewed prosperity than they’ve been in decades.
They’re excited. They’re eager to believe you care about what they care about – that’s why they elected you. They want action. And as consumers they will judge you: if you don’t fulfill your promises as advertised, they will abandon you just as in the last election they abandoned the clueless Democrats.
Whether you’re part of the Tuesday Group or the Freedom Caucus, a purist or something of a RINO, get it together and find common ground because you sure won’t get any help from the nay-saying Democrats who will keep circling you like snarling dingoes. Get it together and quit wrangling among yourselves or the American people will never again trust you with their future. When Republicans bicker and can’t agree, Democrats win. When Democrats win, our Republican president looks like a loser and so do you.
One more thing. Don’t let the Democrats bully you over the debt limit or the budget bills with their annual hysteria about a catastrophic “government shutdown” if you don’t cave to their drunken-spending demands. Why does this preposterous blackmail always work with you people? The Dems know you can reliably be defeated in a spending limit showdown because of how you’ve regularly wimped out on the issue. This time, tell America you’re absolutely ready to cross that line to put our nation on the road to responsible solvency. Shock and awe those wily Dems.
Another reason you’ll need to use those five weeks in August to do the hard work is the looming October 1 start of the 2018 fiscal year. You must get those budget bills passed by then and once again the Democrats will threaten you with a pseudo-disastrous shutdown they’ll try to blame on you Republicans.
Let them: the government shutdown threat is a paper donkey. Last time it happened was in December of 2013. Remember how polls told you running-scared Repubs you would be throttled in the 2014 election if you allowed the government interruptus?
BUT instead, in the 2014 elections held 10 months after the temporary government pause, Republicans won hugely. The Democrats lost hugely. Obama’s favorability rating plunged to the 30’s.
The Republicans steamrolled the Dems and took the Senate. The Dem blame- offensive failed bigtime and the dread shutdown was actually good for Republicans. The faux Republican apocalypse became a victory. Learn from this.
Voters didn’t care about the minor government lapse, except they were rightly incensed that Obama used what was a paltry 17 percent shutdown to halt White House tours for schoolkids and stop elderly vets from visiting their WWII Memorial. But even as Obama shamefully closed the Memorial so the veterans couldn’t go there, the area was opened to a bunch of illegal immigration, pro-amnesty protesters who were allowed to demonstrate there. Outrageous.
Actually, maybe that’s why voters gave Republicans the Senate. This time, when the Dem threats start stinking up the media air, remind the rabid leftist press that Social Security, unemployment and welfare checks will continue to go out and government workers will continue to be paid, and the miniscule number of them temporarily furloughed will be paid later.
It’s time to go big, Congressional Republicans. Cancel that deluxe five-week vacation that actual working Americans can only dream about. Prove your commitment to what Americans want done by staying in D.C. and passing the big bills. A healthcare bill so Americans can actually choose their own doctors while not bankrupting their families. And a big tax reform bill that puts more of their hard-earned cash in Americans’ pockets, at the same time it lowers corporate taxes, bringing back their jobs from offshore to our nation.
Cancel that big fat over-the-top holiday. The Democrats will look silly and you will be heroes. Channel your inner Clint Eastwood and go for the gutsy win. Cancel your August European grand tour; it’s even more sweaty over there at summer’s end than it is in D.C. Really. Hope you opted for that trip insurance because you’re going to need it. If not, it’s a small price to pay for saving America and your jobs.
Joy Overbeck is a Colorado journalist and author who writes for Townhall.com, The Daily Caller, The Washington Times, American Thinker, BarbWire and elsewhere. More columns: https://www.facebook.com/JoyOverbeckColumnist Follow her on Twitter @JoyOverbeck1