Fox News Fail on Boehner and DHS Funding

On Fox News Sunday this past week (February 15, 2015), House Speaker John Boehner was taking hard questions about funding for the Department of Homeland Security, set to expire at the end of the month. The overwhelming gist of the Fox News interview became: "Why are Republicans threatening to shut the government down once again?"

Boehner outlined his position: "The House has done its job. We passed a spending bill." Yes indeed. If there is any stalling, it is in the US Senate, and it is the fault of the minority Democrats. The Democrats are at fault, and Speaker John Boehner was not afraid to repeat that point. For the first time in nearly six years, House Speaker John Boehner is fighting back against the false narrative of President Obama, the Democratic Congressional caucuses, and the Mainstream (now becoming marginalized) media. The Democrats are at fault, Boehner emphasized at length. For the record, Republicans did not shut the government down in 2013.The Democrats did, insisting on more spending with greater taxes and regulations, all out of consort with the American People. Boehner was right when he had declared in October 2013: "The American People do not want a government shut-down, and they don't want Obamacare". US Senator Ted Cruz and his colleagues did the best they could with the limited resources and the negative media attention which often shifts the blame to the Republicans every time the government shuts down. For two weeks, despite little activity in Washington, military veterans stormed the Washington Monument, and necessary payments on debts and entitlements continued unabated.

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Republicans feared government shutdowns in the past because the mainstream media would right away pounce on the GOP and blame them for the dysfunction. Come the shut-down of 2013, and Republicans were not hurt at all by the slowdown. Republicans did what they could, yet they faced a recalcitrant media, now weakened by a New Media seeking to tell the whole story, no longer carrying water for Democrats and dousing Republicans. Apparently, whatever upset there may have been about the 2013 slow-down, it really did not matter, since Republicans swept the House and took over the US Senate. Democrats are at their lowest, and youngest numbers in the House since the 1930s. Shut-downs seem to work for Republicans, as long as they are coordinated. When Chris Wallace brought up this conflict to the Fox News panel, George Will rebuked the Republicans: "They [the Republicans] promised the American people adult supervision in Washington." I am deeply disappointed with Will's analysis. For years, the Washington Post conservative columnist has chastised Congress for not fulfilling its role as the law-giving, law-making body in the federal contract. During the intense debates about the War in Iraq, Will taunted his liberal counterparts when Democrats took over the US Senate in 2007: "If Democrats oppose the Iraq War, they should cut the funding!” Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid refused to, and continued funding the troops in Iraq. During the TARP bailout crisis in 2008, Will surmised whether Congress would become a desiccated museum, a monument to its former power as it abrogated spending and discretionary appropriations authority to the President with the TARP bailout. With Republicans back in power, they are abiding by the full import of the United States Constitution, and they have offered to fund the Department of Homeland Security while indicating that funds will not support, enact, or expand President Obama's unlawful executive amnesty. Contrary to Will's smug assertion, Congressional Republicans are engaging in adult supervision: they are cutting off the funding to a wayward, heedless, spoiled adolescent President. Having expressed routine disdain for the Constitution and its implicit checks and balances, Obama assumes that he can order whatever actions he pleases, and spend taxpayer dollars in the process, while ignoring the basic demands set out in the country's foundational charter: to provide for the common defense and secure the blessings of liberty. President Obama, the purported Constitutional law professor, needs a crash course in enumerated powers, many of which he has tried to take for himself. Congress is pushing back, and while they have reasonably funded all other key agencies, they are clearly not going along with executive amnesty. Returning back to the Fox News panel, Dana Perino, former press secretary for the Bush Administration, went along with the media narrative that the Republicans would be blamed for another government shutdown. Question One: Is this true? Second Question: who cares? The New Media is holding the Republicans' feet over the fire to stand their ground for a shut-down. There are individual bloggers as well as growing interest groups which expect the Congress to live up to its expectations of adequately funding the government while preventing Obama's overreach. Where the Marginalized Media routinely hammered the Republicans for shutting down the federal government in 1995-1996, their stock and influence has dwindled considerably over the next two decades. With the sudden suspension (and perhaps termination) of News Anchor Brian Williams from NBC, Big Media is having a big problem holding onto ratings and viewers. Is anyone even listening to the press' hollow "I hate Republicans!" narrative anymore? Despite the bitter pleadings of Fox News pundits, the fight over DHS funding is more than a political argument: this is Constitutionalism at its finest. If anyone is playing politics, look no further than the deeply diminished Democratic caucus and their President sacrificing the welfare and security of this country for an easy cohort of Democratic voters. Speaker John Boehner should be commended for placing the blame squarely where it belongs, on the US Senate minority of Democrats who are blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The minority caucus will not even permit an amendment process, when Republicans had permitted the same on the Keystone Pipeline Bill. Fox News Anchor Chris Wallace and fellow panelists read Speaker John Boehner wrong. Let’s hope that conservative Congressional leaders stick to their principles instead of listening to the press or following the transitory polls of the Marginalized Media.