It seems like just about every week Trey Gowdy is in the news as he fights the good fight against Obama and the liberals. He’s been relentless going after the administration on Benghazi and other scandals, and calling out Democrats like Nancy Pelosi on their “mind-numbing” stupidity. Gowdy has also announced support for a lawsuit against Obama for failing to do his basic executive duties.
He’s now got another suggestion to rein in this reckless administration: Defund Obama’s vacations as a punishment for executive overreach. Awesome.
PJ Media reports his comments:
“Number one, my colleagues in the Senate have advise and consent, if they want to shut down the Senate over appropriations bills or ambassadorships or other things. The Constitution gives them the power of advise and consent. The Constitution gives us power over the purse,” Gowdy said on Fox. “So we have appropriation bills that are going to be coming to the House this spring. We ought to strip money away from this executive branch, because our framers gave us that exclusive right to do so. If one branch overreaches then maybe the other branch ought to stick up for itself.” [...] “Last October, we weren’t persuasive enough. People don’t like the Affordable Care Act but they don’t like our tactic of shutting down the government,” he said. “OK. Fine. We got that. We still have appropriation bills that are coming. So what we ought to do is say, Mr. President, you want to run roughshod over the Constitution, we have the power of the purse. We’re not going to fund your pet projects. We’re not going to fund your green energy initiatives. We are not going it fund your vacations.”
When asked if they’d really cut off Obama’s vacation dough, Gowdy said, “Blank right, we are going to do it.”
“Yes, we’re going to do it. Yes. Because my mom made may be watching. You are blank right we are going to do it,” he added. “There are a host of my colleagues that are not just going to sit around and mope and cry because this president overreaches. We’re going to respond and we are going to respond in the appropriations process.”
Congressman Gowdy is exactly right. The other branches have to stick up for themselves when one branch overreaches. Congress controls the purse, so it can turn off the money spigot at any point in time. The question is whether our congressional leaders have the guts to do it.
If Obama is going to try to make Congress irrelevant, the legislative branch should use all constitutional resources available, including its power of the purse, to try and stop him. It’s the basic constitutional duty of checks and balances.