Masters at making government not work
The GOP’s politics of dysfunction
By Editorial Board, WashPost, Sunday, May 12, 6:47 PM
IT’S NO SURPRISE that Senate Republicans grouse about Obama administration policies on enforcing civil rights laws or limiting greenhouse-gas emissions. They are entitled to their policy views.
It’s a different matter for Republican leaders to manifest their views by blocking confirmation to Cabinet positions of the officials in charge of those policies. By doing so, on absurdly flimsy pretexts, Republicans not only impede the president’s nominations for labor secretary and chief of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but also undermine the normal flow of government, upon which presidents of both parties have depended. They help to subvert whatever is left of Americans’ faith in government. And they may give frustrated Democrats an excuse to rewrite Senate rules in a way that both parties will have cause to regret.
Last Thursday, Republicans boycotted the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, thereby preventing a vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead the EPA. Ms. McCarthy, who was easily confirmed by the Senate to her current position as chief of the EPA’s clean air division, previously served as a top state environmental official under Republican governors in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. Competent and well qualified, she’s an obvious choice to lead the agency.
Still, Republicans unhappy about the administration’s policies to limit greenhouse-gas emissions and other pollutants — “job-killing regulations,” in GOP parlance — demanded she submit answers to more than 1,000 questions, then deemed her answers inadequate. The deluge may be a record for a Cabinet appointee; more than 650 were submitted just by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).
(More here.)
IT’S NO SURPRISE that Senate Republicans grouse about Obama administration policies on enforcing civil rights laws or limiting greenhouse-gas emissions. They are entitled to their policy views.
It’s a different matter for Republican leaders to manifest their views by blocking confirmation to Cabinet positions of the officials in charge of those policies. By doing so, on absurdly flimsy pretexts, Republicans not only impede the president’s nominations for labor secretary and chief of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but also undermine the normal flow of government, upon which presidents of both parties have depended. They help to subvert whatever is left of Americans’ faith in government. And they may give frustrated Democrats an excuse to rewrite Senate rules in a way that both parties will have cause to regret.
Last Thursday, Republicans boycotted the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, thereby preventing a vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead the EPA. Ms. McCarthy, who was easily confirmed by the Senate to her current position as chief of the EPA’s clean air division, previously served as a top state environmental official under Republican governors in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. Competent and well qualified, she’s an obvious choice to lead the agency.
Still, Republicans unhappy about the administration’s policies to limit greenhouse-gas emissions and other pollutants — “job-killing regulations,” in GOP parlance — demanded she submit answers to more than 1,000 questions, then deemed her answers inadequate. The deluge may be a record for a Cabinet appointee; more than 650 were submitted just by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home