'Cowards who kowtow': GOP lawmakers accused of relinquishing all their power to Trump
The 119th Congress, which is currently controlled by Republicans in both the House and Senate, is "enthusiastically" giving away its constitutional powers to President Donald Trump, argues a new article in The New York Times.
Reporters Carl Hulse and Catie Edmondson cited the current stopgap spending bill that would provide for the Trump agenda without any concessions to Democrats.
They wrote that House Republican leaders have also "quietly surrendered their chamber’s ability to undo Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China in an effort to shield their members from having to take a politically tough vote."
And, the article accuses the GOP-led Congress of "cheering" as Elon Musk's DOGE decimated federal agencies in an effort to cut spending.
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The article quotes Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-MA) on Trump's tariffs, saying Republican lawmakers “are abdicating their most important Constitutional obligation: oversight over the executive branch on trade. Republicans have unequivocally showed us who they are — cowards who kowtow to the president on everything including the economy.”
The article states that the Congress of yesteryear saw both Republican and Democratic lawmakers "fiercely" protecting their turf, "pushing back strongly at moments when presidents have attempted to usurp congressional prerogatives."
But, "With the House and Senate so polarized and legislative success so difficult to achieve in recent years, power has been inexorably gravitating down Capitol Hill toward occupants of the White House, which has been more than willing to try and exercise it with executive orders and other unilateral action."
Republicans, for their part, deny they're giving anything away to the White House.
"They say that the federal bureaucracy had become such a monolith that only radical action of the level being taken by Mr. Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk could produce meaningful change after decades of resistance and uncooperative agency officials," the article says.
Unfortunately, for Democrats, there seems to be little they can do to push back with the current congressional makeup.
Hulse and Edmondson wrote, "Democrats, relegated to the minority in both chambers, have no power to convene oversight hearings and Republicans have quickly rebuffed their appeals and calls to subpoena Mr. Musk."