Congress In Dark On Counterterror Plan Before Obama Speech At West Point -- Washington Times
Members of Congress need to pay attention when President Obama delivers a speech: He could be urging support for an initiative they’ve never heard of.
During a commencement address to West Point cadets last month, Mr. Obama called on Congress to fund a new $5 billion counterterrorism plan to “train, build capacity and facilitate partner countries on the front lines” of the war on terror.
Sounds like something Congress could get behind, if they only knew what it was.
The staff for the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, has yet to be briefed by or receive details from the White House about the new initiative. The committee has been drafting the National Defense Authorization Act, which presumably would fund the initiative from the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget.
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My Comment: This is not how you govern a country .... and this is definitely not how you formulate counter-terrorism plans and policies. But this has now become the standard for this White House .... we tell you what needs to be done .... and you obey .... and if not .... executive actions are the end result.
Last I heard the President was the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, not Congress. If Congress doesn't like it, then they can cut funding, or vote to impeach and remove him from office.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, quit your bitching, Congress can't pour piss out of a boot that has the instructions on the heel.
Obama and his national security staff aren't much better.
I know how the US government works .... the President proposes and the Congress disposes.
ReplyDeleteBut the consultation process has always been the rock-bed on how U.S. government policies have been formulated .... especially on national security issues. Congress may not agree with the President on a policy .... but at least they know about it and can start the legislative process on dealing with it.
This is why this is a break with tradition .... and there will be blow-back from Congress because of it.
There was discussion and give and take. Some political types and oligarchs of the left got together discussed what was needed and the played kingmaker with their money and in cahoots with the press (MSM).
ReplyDeleteThe person they made king was Obama who knows how to count votes fairly well and has some small polemical skills which are greatly magnified with handlers and a teleprompter.
This is the result.
Buckley said something to the effect that we could do better picking 435 names out of the phonebook to govern us than with congress as elected.
We could do no worse doing the same with the Presidency. Obama is that bad.