Matt Gerszewski

Minot

Sens. Hoeven and Cramer had the opportunity on Thursday to courageously side with the Constitution and Congress’ traditionally exercised power of the purse – its Constitutionally-mandated control of government spending – over the extra-Constitutional whims of President Trump.

Unfortunately, our senators chose to support the latter, unlike 59 other senators, including 12 fellow Republicans, who chose to overturn Trump’s fake news declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border. Hats off to those senators, including conservative stalwart Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who tried hard to get the Trump administration to reverse course or agree on a compromise.

Our state’s senators declare their conservative credentials every chance they get. True and consistent conservatives, however, would never abdicate Congress’ duties and responsibilities in favor of opening the door of the Federal treasury to an administration that wants to usurp those powers.