Newly elected Presidents of the United States must devote major time and political capital beginning even before being sworn-in as the nation’s Chief Executive to finding and nomination about 4,000 political appointees, 1,200 of which require Senate confirmation.
Electing a new President is the most direct tool possessed by the people of the United States to change government policies, programs and processes. Getting those 4,000 political appointees in place — especially those requiring Senate confirmation — is a new chief executive’s most immediate and powerful tool for bringing about those changes sought by the people. That leaves career bureaucrats in place to delay, slow-walk and otherwise subvert presidential orders.
This in turn means senators who oppose such nominees for no other reason but because they hate the guy nominating them are effectively opposing the will of the majority of the American people by denying their chosen president the appointees he must have throughout the sprawling federal government to bring about desired policy, program and process changes.
That’s the first-order effect of the strategy utilized for weeks by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Democratic/Independent caucus. After trying unsuccessfully for weeks to get Schumer to agree to some sort of compromise that would enable the Senate to move forward dozens of non-controversial nominees via the Unanimous Consent (UC) process, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) sent the Senate home for an August recess shortened by one week.
Under the UC, non-controversial nominees can be confirmed without debate and other delays, but all it takes to stop such a motion is for one senator to object. And Democrats are objecting to every Republican UC motion on nominees that heretofore would have sailed through the Senate.
In his defense, Schumer claims that Trump’s nominees are across-the-board unqualified. What Schumer didn’t explain was the fact that what disqualifies every one of these nominees for the Democrats is merely the fact Trump chose them. It’s hard not to view that attitude as Trump Derangement Syndrome in action.
As I reported in The Washington Stand July 28, most Senate Republicans are apoplectic:
“Democrats have filibustered all but one of President Trump’s nominees, and that was the very first nominee — now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He was confirmed on day one of this administration.
“Since then, it has been a wall of obstruction. Democrats filibustered positions requiring confirmation that have never before had a roll call vote in the United States Senate,” declared Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wy).
Consequently, hours and hours of legislative floor time in May, June and July were lost instead of being devoted to, for example, advancing the Senate’s appropriations work in the effort to avoid resorting come September and October to yet another multi-thousand page Continuing Resolution (CR) that does little or nothing to reduce or eliminate federal deficits and debt.
Curiously, however, when Thune sent the senators home, he continued the recent practice of not adjourning the Senate. Instead, the Senate will technically continue throughout August via pro forma sessions. No legislative business gets done in pro forma sessions but, since the Senate technically remains on duty, it prevents Trump from making recess appointments.
Were he able to make recess appointments, Trump could simply do that for all of his delayed nominees, enabling them to get to their work in the departments and agencies through the end of the 119th Congress on January 3, 2027. Instead, Trump will be forced to deal with often recalcitrant, and not infrequently openly opposing career bureaucrats.
Which brings us to the second-order effects of the Schumer Blockade. The Senate will get nothing done during August, Trump will be largely blocked from implementing many of the changes the majority of American voted for in November 2024 and when Congress returns in September, there will be even less time and political energy required for making tough decisions on federal spending priorities.
And as voters realize how hobbled the government is in responding to election verdicts, the cynicism and lack of faith in Congress, the Presidency, elections and both of the major political parties will accelerate.
At what point does our system pass the point of no return?
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