Limits Of Principle

(Limits Of Principle)

Being principled is a laudable quality. When some action is taken, it can be off a principled stance. However, there are limitations to how far a stand be held before it degenerates into the absurd. There are two obvious examples of people who are standing on principle but have now crossed the Rubicon into abject silliness.

The obvious example is President Biden himself. His whole Administration had been a stand on principle and the whole Administration has been absurd. It was mentioned that the President was at the U.N. General Assembly the other day, however, Britain, China. France, India were not in attendance. In the realm of global politics, there are few things more irrelevant than the General Assembly, or President Biden. When the President was at the lectern, he made his usual speech on climate change and made the comment that he is "safeing the climate." Whatever that means.

The delegates in the Chamber are probably aware of the "stands" Biden has taken on behalf of the environment, the latest outrage was to close off millions of acres in New Mexico, Navaho lands incidentally, to any oil exploration or extraction. Such activities would provide jobs and infrastructure to an impoverished nation, but, like the UAW, who have to deal with Biden's insistence on the EV transition, these Indians are also being sacrificed on the alter of Biden's green obsession. And, to add insult to injury, the President has just, by executive order, created a so-called "Climate Corps" numbering some 20,000 diverse people to fight climate change. How is all that supposed to work ? Will these people have the ability to issue citations of some sort whenever something is not what they deem to be in compliance ? And, by the way, some 4,000 migrants are just crossing the border. But hey, the open border has been a matter of principle.

What one might have also heard is that the government will probably cease operations at the end of the month. It has been the responsibility of House of Representatives to fund the government. Speaker McCarthy, from the beginning, had promised a return to "regular order" which means that House Appropriations would determine a budget and then fund twelve funding bills independently. Understood in that process was that significant reductions in spending would be effected.

House Republicans had all year to pass these measures sequentially and not wait till the end of the Fiscal Year, days away from September 30th when the money runs out and a government shutdown gets triggered. The problem of course is the paucity of the current GOP Majority and any member could hold the Agenda hostage. Congressman Matt Gates (R-FL) is ignoring the limits that exist for House leadership and has paused proceedings.

The House Republican Conference has been fractured with Gates only the most conspicuous making a resolution by the end of the month increasingly un-likely. But Gates and the others are making a stand on principle. They are aware of the consequences of a closure but it seems a step they are willing to take. Like the President.