WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that he was disappointed after meeting with President Obama at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters, “The President is stubbornly refusing to end the crisis I created.”
“Government is about teamwork,” Mr. Boehner continued. “I’ve done my part by putting together an entirely optional crisis that has shut down the government and will throw thousands out of work. Now it’s up to the President to do his part by ending it.”
---“The Borowitz Report,” (satire) by Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker (12.3.2013)
There is nothing to laugh about in the subject of this Borowitz piece (although I am usually a big fan). It's just that this time his satire takes on a topic too sobering and important, and his message is too true. The government shutdown was totally unnecessary, it has brought suffering to many already, and will bring suffering to many more. And Speaker Boehner, now boxed-in with the ridiculously demanding Tea Party conservatives of his base, will likely carry it forward and hold up the process of raising the debt ceiling, as well--which would do further damage to the country and the economy. And Boehner's response? The President and Senate refuse to negotiate a law of the land some of Boehner's constituents have ideological revulsion for. It's the President's and the Senate's fault.
And the precedent to be set? If a house of the government becomes dominated by one party--either house, either party--but the other house and the executive are of another party that earlier authored and managed to pass highly contested legislation, that law may still be at risk outside the normal legislative process. If that defeated majority party in the one house decides it really hates and wants to rescind all or parts of that particular law of the land, it merely has to threaten to stop the funding process and shut down the government. And more, if the timing is right, it could threaten to cut off the ability of the government to increase borrowing to pay existing debts. So then, all the other house and president have to do, of course, is agree to rescinding or changing the existing law, under funding duress, held hostage, so to speak, and the government can be right again. Done. That's all. It's that simple. Just threaten governmental anarchy, the one house--and give in to government anarchy, the other and the president.
Of course, that is not the Constitutional process by which legislation is rescinded or changed. In fact, it disrespects and disregards both the democratic and legislative process, and the rule of law. And since, in our case at hand, the Senate majority and the President rightly won't agree, it places approximately 18% of the population (a polling estimate of Tea Party supporters) in the center of an attempt to create an unprecedented and undemocratic back door to force their will over the majority even after a Congressional majority have properly, Constitutionally, passed the law.
Under the Constitution, to change an existing law, a new bill must be worked through, passed by both houses, and signed into law by the president, just the same way the original bill in question became law in the first place. This action by Boehner and the Tea Party conservatives is an extraordinary undermining of our legislative process and our representative democracy. Only a profoundly irresponsible and radically ideological group would be willing to risk that much damage to our system and people to get their way on a particular law they don't like. And then to blame the President and the Senate for not agreeing to change it or negotiate a partial change to it under threat of closing the Government of the United States? And more, considering denying the government needed access to additional financial resources? Boehner and the Tea Party conservatives are openly, brazenly, pursuing an unprecedented and frightening strategy of undermining our democratic legislative process of government. It needs to be recognized and called out for what it is.
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