OPINION:
The voters could have given either party a mandate in November. They didn’t, opting instead for an outcome that will produce gridlock between both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and both sides of the Capitol.
It’s looking more and more like this was a wise choice. The $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill brought forth by congressional Democrats working with Senate Republicans is a pork-laden nightmare. The injection of that much money into the economy at a time when inflation is a concern will almost certainly reduce the purchasing power of the wages paid to Americans.
With no big bills to work on, Congress will have lots of time free to focus on the oversight responsibilities that outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, didn’t seem to have time for during the session just ended.
There’s a lot that can be said about their failures. It is more important, though, to think about what is to come. The congressional oversight function is not a blank check. The investigations to come must arise out of concerns more important than scoring points with political partisans for them to be justified.
There’s plenty to work with. It defies belief, for example, that no one in Congress thinks it necessary to further investigate the impact the pandemic lockdowns had on the health and welfare of the American people. Or what prolonged school closings had on the social and intellectual development of the nation’s children. And that’s just the tip of a very large iceberg.
It’s also important for Congress to look into whether COVID-19 was the product of Chinese biological “gain of function” research funded in part by the U.S. government. If it were, as has been credibly alleged, a thorough investigation would not only bring this to light but force a conversation leading to legislation to restrict such efforts from ever getting a green light in the future. If it wasn’t, we can move on to other things.
There are plenty of issues worthy of Congress’ time and attention. Some of them are big, like Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ mismanagement of events occurring daily on America’s border with Mexico. The country is being inundated, not just by a flood of illegal immigrants but by illicit drugs, sex traffickers and other criminals gleefully taking advantage of the access to U.S. markets the chaos has provided them.
There’s also the question of how far the FBI went while its agents were telling Twitter and other high-tech company execs about the dangers to U.S. election security potentially posed by Russian disinformation in 2020. It’s important to know whether the U.S. government applied any kind of pressure at all on the executives of these companies that led, directly or indirectly, to the suppression of free speech.
There are other issues that, while not of earth-shaking importance, still matter. How many Biden administration officials have traveled on carbon-emitting private jets to global summits and other meetings devoted to climate change? What impact has the president’s energy policy had on the production and refining of domestic crude, and what did it do to the price of gas? And how did now-former Energy Department official Sam Brinton, who resigned in disgrace after being charged with grand theft, get appointed as a career official to a spot reserved for a political appointee, as is rumored to have been the case, and who inside the White House signed off on the change?
All these things are targets for legitimate inquiry. It’s important to know what happened and why because it will shape future legislation safeguarding the people’s interests and pocketbooks. The new Congress should take them up methodically and deliberately with hammers and tongs if necessary because the people have a right to know.
Unfortunately, all these things and others like them threatened to be subsumed in the firestorm likely to ignite once the new House begins looking into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. To invoke former President Richard Nixon, the American people must know their president is not a crook.
Whether it is worth Congress’ time to look into the matter is a judgment call. If there is something to be gained from such an inquiry, by all means, let it go forward. The integrity of the presidency matters. No one should be allowed to occupy it or other high offices if they used their position to enrich themselves.
Would an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings prove such a thing? It might. Then again, it might not, leaving the country open to being dragged through another unnecessary ethical morass harmful to our national ethos.
The new congressional leadership should tread lightly but with resolve as it determines its path forward.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.