Bob McNamara, Upham

Some say there is chaos in Washington and the admin is out of control. Others say you have to blow it up and start over to fix it. Both may be right or both may be wrong. That isn’t my point. My point will be that our government continues to grow with seemingly no controls.

I would submit the reason our government is this way sits right at the feet of Congress. Right at the feet of John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer. The congress established these departments and agencies. The congress funds these departments and agencies every year, at least it should be every year but they can rarely get a budget done without continuing resolutions such as the one we are on now.

At some point in time the congress felt these departments were a good idea. But now we have the congress hiding in the shadows, letting the president and others slash programs, jobs, departments, or whatever without control or oversight. How many times have we heard that Congress has the responsibility for oversight during the last four years. Actually, Mitch McConnell said that the congress provides the guardrails for presidential oversight. Well they are hiding now.

I am not against cuts. I believe we must have cuts and we have to get control of our deficit. However, it should be Congress addressing problems through agency funding. It should be the department leaders, through review of programs, ensuring everything spent is in the interest of the country. Maybe it should be an orderly fix of our problems, not this haphazard approach.

The only reason we can’t have an orderly approach is the gutless men and women we send to Congress. These are the same people who haven’t addressed legal immigration in decades, resulting in the illegal immigration problem today. The same people who haven’t addressed out of control government growth. The same people who haven’t addressed the nation’s budget and deficit problems. The same Congress who has allowed the nation to be governed through executive orders that can be overturned and changed every time we change administrations. The same people who have allowed the nation’s infrastructure to decay by not funding or overseeing the programs.

You can read every single week about the money that Mr. Hoeven or Mr. Cramer is bringing to North Dakota. They have yet to see a federal dollar they didn’t want to spend, without regard to how it impacts the deficit, as long as it comes to ND. Don’t get me wrong. They aren’t the only ones. No, it seems everyone in Congress goes to work and says I’ll vote for your highway to nowhere if you vote for my military base or water project or whatever.

Beyond that reality is that the problem lies with all of us who vote people back into office without regard for the job they have done. Maybe each of us are, in fact, the problem. If you continue to vote the same people to Washington, maybe you are the problem.