Congress is dysfunctional in more ways than one. They legislate on issues they have no business regulating, and they refuse to appropriate money for things that are clearly within their purview.
As Rita Dunaway explains in a recent op-ed on The Stream, their priorities are entirely wrong.
The crazy thing is, while Congress refuses to budget money to protect our southern border, it has taken on lots of other projects.
We can make a long list of dubious causes for which it has freely opened its coffers. According to a recent op-ed in the Washington Times, these include:
- $21 Million in loans to Rolex jewelers;
- $42 Billion in grants, aid, and subsidies to ivy league colleges;
- $161 Million in loans to exclusive clubs like country clubs and yacht clubs; and
- $5.7 Million spent on “climate change voicemails from the future,” through the National Science Foundation.
This is just a tiny little taste of the complete list.
Putting aside for a moment the issue of authority to spend tax dollars for these purposes, let’s first think about the issue of priorities. Does anyone really think that any item on that list should be a higher spending priority than securing our national borders?
The heart of the problem in Washington, D.C., is that Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court have forgotten their proper roles as prescribed by the Constitution.
As Dunaway explains,
In our Constitution, Congress is given specific jobs to do, and it has no power but to do those jobs. Yet somehow, Congress is so busy sending money to ivy league colleges, supporting yacht clubs, and funding marketing to address climate change, that it has no time or money to do a basic job that it was meant to do.
The solution? It'll take more than another election and a new Congress. We need to change the structure that defines the role of Congress, and the best way to do that is through an Article V Convention of States.
The states can use this process to propose constitutional amendments that will close the loopholes that have allowed the feds to lose their focus. We can’t afford to keep looking the other way when Congress behaves irresponsibly. It’s time for us to force Washington back on task.
Want to help get Washington back on track? Sign the Convention of States Petition to help the effort in your state!
