Unless they can be used as weapons when Republicans are in power, ethics and corruption investigations are not interesting to Democrats.
During the final years of Bush’s presidency, the House Oversight Committee was abuzz with activity as Democrats used the power of the committee and it’s generous budget to “get” President Bush. Chairman Henry Waxman used the power of his committee chairmanship to subpoena Bush administration officials at the drop of a hat and his committee was deemed indispensable by Democrats for holding government accountable.
That was then.
Now, the House Oversight Committee is suddenly not so important to the Democrats. In fact, it is so unimportant that its budget has been afforded the smallest budget increase of any other committee.
Not only that, but current Chairman, Edolphus Towns (D, NY) has not been nearly as energetic in indulging his keen “oversight” as former Chairman Waxman was. With Obama’s massive bloating of federal spending, one would think that Towns might find his “oversight” of supreme importance in order to make sure waste does not occur with federal spending.
But, while Towns claims he’ll stay on top of this situation, there is no indication that he is much interested in exercise his powers.
Then there’s the budget. According to reports in The Hill, Democrats are giving the House Oversight Committee a paltry 3 percent increase in its budget, the second-smallest of any committee.
So, in comparison with its past and in comparison with other committees, it seems the Democrats are both stifling the committee’s operations and starving its budget.
It all leads one to wonder why this committee was so important to Democrats over the last few years? They insisted that this committee was vital to good government then. But now, all of a sudden, it seems to be of less importance, in fact it seems to be a downright after thought.
It seems more like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama have renamed the committee from the House Oversight Committee to the House Overlooked Committee.
Why do Democrats love corruption and hate accountability?
Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
