The modern clown show that is Congress rolls on and on, thanks to a constituency that seems to prefer the empty entertainment value of silly antics over the dull mechanics of meaningful action.
Consider how some have so publicly pressured the White House to let military leaders put more boots on the ground to fight militants in the Middle East.
In this, they take the can’t-lose position of siding with generals, appearing eager to turn the brass loose to pursue a robust combat mission. Yet these are the same generals whom lawmakers have handcuffed through years of failure to pass rational budgets that would give them the resources to field a force sufficient to the task.
Instead, military leaders must find a way to cut tens of thousands of troops and slash billions in spending, even as so many in Congress play war hawks to every act of hostility around the globe.
Even on a mission focused on saving rather than destroying, some lawmakers can’t resist the urge to grandstand.
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, briefly held up $750 million in new funds for the U.S. effort to help fight the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa.
After lashing the White House for responding too slowly to the outbreak, he actually blamed the Obama administration for defense spending cuts in recent years that supposedly have made such missions more difficult.
That’s some rich hypocrisy. The very roots of those defense cuts rest with lawmakers who three years ago failed to break a budget impasse, threw up their hands and approved mindless, across-the-board spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
Since then, they’ve repeatedly failed to resolve the matter, leaving the Defense Department with virtually zero budget flexibility.
Until lawmakers see fit to do their job, it is grossly unfair to criticize how military leaders are coping with the many real-world demands being put upon them.
