Tag Archives: Mac Thornberry

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Paychecks still roll in for lawmakers

I am holding out hope that the government shutdown is close to being ended and that the bickering parties will strike a deal to raise the nation’s debt limit.

Before all that happens, I want to vent one more time against those lawmakers — and even the president and vice president — who continue to draw their pay while taking measures that send other federal employees home without pay.

Some of our members of Congress have done the right thing. U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., for example has donated his salary to food distribution organizations in his home state. He declared that Americans shouldn’t go hungry while a portion of their government has been shuttered.

There have been others of both parties and I salute them all for doing what I believe is the noble thing.

My own congressman, Republican Mac Thornberry of Clarendon? He’s still getting paid. Hmmm. I am guessing a man of his means isn’t exactly living off his $174,000 annual salary.

I am acutely aware that House members, senators and executive branch leaders surrendering their salaries for a brief period of time won’t balance the budget, it won’t bring us closer to good fiscal health and it won’t settle this dispute between the parties.

However, I’ve long respected those who lead by example. We elect these people to lead, to make tough decisions on our behalf and to demonstrate that they are men and women of their word.

One way to demonstrate their commitment is to share in the pain their decisions are having on others.

Giving up a few weeks’ pay is one of those ways.

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It’s always the same blowhards spouting off

Have you ever wondered why, with 535 members of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, we keep hearing only from a tiny fraction of the entire congressional body?

OK, maybe you haven’t wondered about that. But I have. I find it annoying almost in the extreme.

The ongoing discussion about the Affordable Care Act, the budget, whether to shut the government down and a host of other pressing issues of late brings this topic to mind.

Since the loudest voices all seem to be Republicans these days, I’ll pick on them mostly here.

I’ve been intrigued particularly by the ubiquitous presence of one Ted Cruz, junior Republican senator from Texas, who’s been holding the only elected office he’s ever held for all of nine months. But the guy is everywhere, ranting about “Obamacare” and pledging to do everything within his power to defund it.

I’ll make Cruz my Blowhard in Chief on this one.

But as I look at the Senate roster I see a lot of other capable Republicans — especially those who’ve been around a lot longer than Cruz — who would be just as capable, articulate and forceful as the junior U.S. senator from Texas, who has managed to eclipse even his more senior Texas colleague, Republican John Cornyn.

Where has Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch been? Anyone seen or heard from Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran? I’m about to put an all points bulletin on Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, who once served as education secretary for President George H.W. Bush.

The Senate has about 90 or so silent types who I guess prefer to leave the blustering to the likes of Cruz, John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

To be sure, Democrats have their share of Senate blabbermouths. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chuck Schumer of New York seem to be the Democrats’ loudest mouthpieces.

I’d rather hear, though, from Al Franken of Minnesota, who in his previous life was a hilarious “Saturday Night Live” cast member.

The House has its small cadre of Republican blowhards as well. I think of Peter King of New York, Steve King of Iowa and Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota (who, thankfully, is leaving Congress after the 2014 election). I’d throw Southeast Texas Republican Steve Stockman into that mix, but he’s too goofy to be taken seriously. As for House Democrats, let’s trot out Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Debbie Schultz of Florida (who also chairs her party’s national committee).

I’ll mention only one silent House member whose voice ought to be heard. He is Mac Thornberry from right here in the Texas Panhandle. The Clarendon lawmaker has been around since 1995 and has as much stroke and political moxie as any of the aforementioned loudmouths.

I realize we all have our favorite blowhards. I’m sure to have left out someone’s favorite.

But the main point here is that the collective bodies of both congressional chambers are full of wise men and women of both parties who have as much to say as the clowns to whom I’ve just referred.

It once was said of former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm that the most dangerous place in America was “the space between Sen. Gramm and a TV camera.”

That description clearly now applies to Ted Cruz — and maybe a handful of others.

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Insanity may result in government shutdown

The insane wing of the Republican Party is having its way, or it would appear, as the government inches toward a shutdown.

Will someone ever be able to slam some sense into those thick tea party skulls?

House Speaker John Boehner, one Republican who doesn’t want to shut the government down over objections to the Affordable Care Act, is now hamstrung by the conservative cabal that has hijacked the once-great political party. They’re insisting on defunding “Obamacare,” and are willing to risk shutting down the entire federal government to do so.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has adopted an apt term for the tea party wing. He calls them “anarchists.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/year-end-tax-cuts-have-nearly-doubled-projected-size-of-national-debt-cbo-says/2013/09/17/cda802d2-1f9c-11e3-94a2-6c66b668ea55_story.html

The Washington Post reports: “None of the Republicans are willing to stand up to these anarchists,” Reid told reporters. Of the law known as Obamacare, he added: “They’re obsessed with a bill that passed four years ago, a bill that was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. They can’t get over that.”

I keep waiting for some leading Republicans, the folks who’ve been around the nation’s capital for some time, to talk some sense into these yahoos. I’m thinking of, oh, people like Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, who’s been through a government shutdown and knows the political price his party will pay if they go through with this idiotic notion.

Thornberry, though, doesn’t raise a ruckus. I know it’s not his style to be drum-thumper. I’m kind of wishing he’d rethink his back-bench mentality and take the lead on this one.

If he doesn’t, or if someone in the leadership doesn’t wrest control back from the GOP’s insane wing, there will be hell to pay.

Guaranteed.

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Waiting on Mac Thornberry to weigh in on Syria

Has anyone seen or heard from U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry lately?

I know that’s a rhetorical question. Some folks have seen and/or heard him as he travels through the vast 13th Congressional District of the Texas Panhandle, which he has represented since 1995.

But here’s the deal: The nation is roiling at this moment over whether President Obama should order missile strikes against Syrian military forces in retaliation for their use of chemical weapons, but Mac Thornberry, a senior Republican member of the House Armed Services and Permanent Select Intelligence committees, has been all but silent on the matter.

http://thornberry.house.gov/

I spent some time this morning perusing Thornberry’s website. I looked for press releases, issues statements, “white papers” on national security. Nothing in there about Syria.

I’m waiting for Thornberry to offer some wisdom on this matter, given that so many members of Congress have weighed in already.

I am acutely aware that much of the public commentary on Syria has come from the usual cadre of Democratic and Republican legislative blowhards. Thornberry isn’t one of them. He’s been a quiet and fairly studious member of Congress since winning the House seat in that landmark 1994 election.

However, he’s also had a ringside seat on some difficult national security issues. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Thornberry has been required to study diligently issues relating to the use of our massive military might. What’s more, as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he has had access to some of the most sensitive national security material imaginable. The late U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-Lufkin — who also served on that panel — once told me that committee members saw virtually everything the president saw. I’m quite certain Thornberry has access to a lot of information about Syria and its possession of deadly nerve agents.

The nation has entered the most serious national security debate since President George W. Bush sought authorization to go to war with Iraq, citing dictator Saddam Hussein’s supposed cache of chemical weapons — which we learned later did not exist.

President Obama’s national security team has presented what appears to be compelling proof that Syria has used the gas on civilians and it has more of it stashed away. He wants to hit those stockpiles in a series of air strikes. The military says it’s ready to go.

Mac Thornberry, our elected representative, has had time to digest the information.

I’m waiting to hear whether he supports striking at a seriously evil dictator.

Talk to us, Mac.

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Disappointed, but not surprised by congressman

Mac Thornberry is a longtime Republican member of Congress from the Texas Panhandle who has long touted his kinship with the land. He comes from a long line of Donley County ranchers.

He’s also benefited from government farm subsidies — and that makes his vote to strip food stamp money from the latest farm bill all the more maddening.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-on-the-potomac/2013/07/3-texas-republicans-under-fire-for-collecting-farm-subsidies-then-voting-against-nutrition-programs/

Thornberry is among a handful of Texas congressmen, all Republicans, who have come under fire for their votes against the nutrition programs all the while taking money from the government for their own farming and ranching operations.

This is a disappointing development in Thornberry’s lengthy career in Congress.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1994 pledging to trim the size of government, which was a key tenet of the Contract With America on which the Republican slate of Senate and House candidates ran that year. Thornberry campaigned aggressively against a Democratic incumbent, Bill Sarpalius, for what he called wasteful spending policies — among other things. 

Now he’s been caught in a bit of a box. He toes the party line on cutting certain government programs, but he’s been revealed to be taking money at the time he’s denying it for others.

The term “hypocrite” keeps popping into my noggin.