Our Constitution dictates that Congress is supposed to enact laws, not the president. Moreover, the Senate is given the adult supervision authority to ensure that top executive branch officials are competent and have at least a modicum of integrity.
However, in the 119th Congress our Wyoming senators have abdicated their responsibilities to bend the knee to "King Donald" with disastrous early results to our democratic institutions and economy. If they aren’t going to do their jobs, we should replace them and their staff with chimps or AI bots that can achieve the same results at essentially no cost.
While the complete list of ways our aenators have been derelict exceeds my allotted word count, I’ll just point out a few:
• Despite that fact that the president has nominated many wholly unqualified individuals to his cabinet, our senators have been a rubber stamp “yes” across the board. So now we have a former heroin addict with no management or health care background running the largest health care organization in the world. We have a man who has abused women and defrauded veterans organizations at the top of the Pentagon. A salesman who has never worked on international trade issues runs the Commerce Department. The list goes on.
• Trump has insisted he’s the president of law and order. However, when he pardons criminals who assaulted police officers on Jan. 6, 2021, we get nothing but silence from our senators. Or pardoning fraudsters such as the former heads of Ozy Media and Nikola and Crypto schemes. Silence. Equal justice under the law only matters to our senators when it’s politically expedient.
• Then there are the seemingly random cuts to the Federal workforce by DOGE. Cutting half the IRS workforce will eviscerate customer service and cost trillions of dollars by allowing tax cheats free reign. Reaction of our senators is silence. Same reaction when DOGE cuts foreign aid that saves millions of lives from malaria and AIDS (so much for being “pro life”).
• Then we have tariffs. Anyone with a basic understand of economics knows Trump’s tariffs are irrational and counterproductive. The financial markets have proven that these idiotic and financially illiterate policies will make all Americans much poorer. A Trump-induced recession and stagflation are almost inevitable. However, once again our senators are tight-lipped.
• Finally, we have tax legislation. Our senators know that Trump’s tax proposals will increase our already exorbitant debt burden to the point that it’s no longer sustainable. The Senate wants to include an accounting gimmick that pretends to make over $4 rrillion of spending disappear. Yet once again our senators are mum and will acquiesce for one reason: they are completely subservient to Trump and ignore their Constitutional duties.
This will all end very badly. Checks and balances are eviscerated. The rule of law is undermined and our economic and political standing in the world is diminished. It’s time for our senators to get a voice and a backbone.
Dan Shefter
Bondurant, Wyoming
