Republican Obstructionism Is The Real Scandal That’s Plaguing Washington

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There are a variety of adjectives to describe Republicans in Congress since Americans elected an African American man to lead the Executive Department, and setting aside sheer racial animus, some apt descriptors are total incompetence, inability to perform, and blatant ineptitude that easily inform the state of the Republican Party. They have, though, been very proficient at obstructing the President from their minority position and it is a sure sign they have nothing but contempt for the American people, the government, and particularly President Obama as they have done absolutely nothing for over four years except prevent the government from operating for the people. Their obstructionism won them the distinction of the worst, least effective Congress in the nation’s history, and instead of reeling from the harsh assessment, they have seized on the phony scandals over the past weeks to focus attention away from the fact that as public servants and the people’s representatives, they are absolutely worthless and have no intention of governing. Instead, they have, and will continue to, spend every waking moment obstructing the government and continue their crusade to discredit President Obama by playing up false scandals. The real scandal plaguing Washington is Republican obstructionism and their apparent glee at having phony scandals to cover the fact they lack any agenda to govern absent tax cuts for the rich and defaming the African American in the Oval Office.

In what should be evident to the American people, the next several months, and possibly years, will be a gross repeat of the past four years of government inaction on the issues that matter most to the American people. Republicans promised to focus entirely on jobs nearly two-and-a-half years ago that have produced no jobs, and their total lack of interest in immigration reform or addressing gun safety measures will be amplified as they celebrate spending all their time on Benghazi, the I.R.S., and more attacks on the Affordable Care Act. The mainstream media has been complicit in focusing on phony scandals instead of the GOP’s lack of a coherent agenda to help economic recovery or the American people, and there has been no better example than the rapidly decreasing national debt that has been supplanted with persistent coverage of Benghazi, the I.R.S., and government seizure of journalist’s phone records that is a direct result of Republican policy under the Bush Administration. In fact, all of the phony scandals can be laid at the feet of Republican ineptitude and economic malfeasance to thwart the President’s attempt to govern. As journalist Dan Rather opined on Thursday, “And no wonder they’re slapping high five behind closed doors. President Obama must feel like he’s Gulliver tied down, every time he turns around he can’t really move in any way. It raises the question: Can he get anything done in this second term as president with the Republicans playing this obstructionist role?”

The phony scandals Republicans will spend the next few months on shine a light on their inaction and not, as they hope, the President’s alleged scandal-ridden Administration. The alleged cover-up of the tragedy in Benghazi shifts attention from Republicans’ refusing to appropriate more funding for security at embassies despite requests from the State Department, and media is remiss to ever point out that Republicans never investigated or charged the Bush administration for lax security during several embassy attacks around the world during Bush’s tenure as president. However, Bush was a white man, and that fact alone gives Republicans cover for ignoring the danger inherent in Bush’s cowboy diplomacy that put “brave American heroes'” lives in jeopardy. Still, after eight months of Republicans’ transparent obstruction and blatantly dishonesty inherent in their Benghazi investigations, it is painfully obvious they refuse to accept the truth or  disclosures they demanded, and received as the White House released nearly 100 pages of emails and documentation answering their questions. Their persistent investigations, hearings, and threats of new investigations are deliberate tactics to avoid governing and obstruct the President from continuing the nation’s economic recovery.

Republicans tasked car thief and House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa with holding investigations into the alleged Benghazi scandal and phony outrage involving I.R.S. investigators who did their due diligence in scrutinizing political activists’ illegal applications for 501(C)(4) “social welfare” tax exemption, instead of investigating Karl Rove and Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity’s illegal applications meant to conceal their dark money donors. The idea that the President, or anyone in his administration ordered the IRS to target conservative groups is insane on its face, especially since it was George W. Bush’s appointee that ran the IRS. Subsequently, while Republicans are busy attempting to tie the White House and the President to using the I.R.S. to steal the 2012 election, they conveniently will avoid spending one minute on job creation or admitting new revenue from the fiscal cliff tax increases are bringing the nation’s debt down by $231 billion in a very short period of time.

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The other alleged scandal Republicans and Democrats are weighing in on is a controversy about the Justice Department’s subpoenaing journalists’ phone records in an investigation into leaks about a terrorist operation. It was Republicans who designed the intrusive Patriot Act, but since Barack Obama is President, they are crying foul in spite of his Administration investigating itself, and despite Attorney General Eric Holder previously recusing himself from the case, some Republicans called for his resignation. It is political theatre for Republicans to avoid doing the real work they were sent to Washington to do that they have determined is destroying President Obama.

In a recent PPP survey, Americans said they want, and expect, Congress to focus on the economic recovery and jobs, immigration reform, and gun safety legislation and not phony scandals like Benghazi or the IRS doing its job. Republicans in Congress are incapable and frankly incompetent to make any substantive progress on job creation will instead spend the next several months on hearings, investigations, and ransoming the rapidly approaching debt ceiling, and obstruct this President, and the government from doing the business of the people. It has been their practice for four years and now that they have three active and phony scandals, their treasonous obstruction will take on a new measure of severity. All the while, the American people will continue suffering gross incompetence and an ineffectual government that defines the Republican Party since the people elected an African American president.
There is no doubt Republicans hate this President, but their deliberate obstruction of government informs that their animus extends far beyond the African American in the White House. The Republican ineptitude and obstruction is approaching anti-American criminality, and their obstruction of the President’s nominees, efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and time spent on phony scandals informs they hate this country, the people, and the Constitutional mandate for governance they swore to uphold as part of the jobs whether they are in the minority or not. The real scandal the American people have been, and will continue, suffering over the past four and a half years and well into the foreseeable future is that Republicans lack any coherent agenda that does not include tax cuts for the rich and deregulating their corporate sponsors. Coupled with their animus toward President Obama and grasping at fabricated scandals, they have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they truly hate America every bit as much as they hate this President and if their ineptitude is not criminal, then it is certainly treasonous.


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