The Flap over the NDAA...
The transgender provision amendment to the NDAA…
When I first joined the Tea Party, and then formed one in Kalkaska County, I often quoted the organization’s 3 main principles:
Constitutionally limited government…
Fiscal responsibility…
and a Free Market economy…
To these I added one of my own:
RESPONSIVE Representation…
After waiting for the chaos surrounding the NDAA amendment defeat to strip funding for transgender surgery/therapy from the Defense Department budget, (which didn’t happen) I sent an e-mail to Congressman Bergman seeking clarification for his NO vote on the amendment…His response was nearly immediate…I received a call from James Hogge around 1 pm yesterday, requesting a dinner meeting with the Congressman in Traverse City…I was told I could extend the invitation to a small, but concerned group of grassroots supporters, which I did…The following is a synopsis of the evening’s events…
After the exchange of social pleasantries and small talk, the Congressman addressed the issue at hand, which was simply Constitutional authority…The Commander in Chief has discretion over the military budget, Congress DOES NOT…The function of Congress concerning the NDAA is to review and approve the DoD budget request for the coming budget cycle, and NOT to dictate how the budget is spent…This budget being debated is still a “Continuing Resolution” budget in order to allow it to proceed to “Reconciliation” needing just 51 votes in the Senate, which it should get…This new budget (if passed) will go into effect on October 1st of this year, and will be available to the DoD on January 1st of 2018…
Stripping $1.3 Billion from the DoD on a policy that will be changed by Defense Secretary Mattis puts “the cart before the horse” as Bergman put it…”General Mattis and I are friends.” he said, and the process of “social experimentation’ in the military will CEASE under his policies…Congress stipulating conditions on the DoD usurps the discretion of the Defense Secretary, and the Constitutional authority of the President as Commander in Chief…It sets a dangerous precedent that would limit (or eliminate) the power of the Secretary of Defense to run the Armed Forces of the United States…
Imagine the amendment had passed…How many others of the 535 Congressional members would be lining up to extract their own ‘pound of flesh’ from the DoD???…The ensuing circus performances of Congress would have brought the budget process to a screeching halt…and the finger pointing would have been nauseating…
So, Bergman (and 23 other Republicans) voted down the amendment to protect the Constitutional authority of the President and his administration, simply put…There it is in a nutshell…
I personally believe, and firmly, that we in CD1 have sent the right person to Washington to represent us, and the Constitution…Jack Bergman is smart, patient, and understands the ‘sausage making’ processes of Congress…He is “President” of the Congressional Freshman Class, and as such, has many doors open to him NOT open to others…He sits on the Budget Committee, and is privy to far more information than most…
I have a question for his detractors on this particular issue:
Do you trust the Generals to run the military, or do you trust Congress to do so???…It is the sworn duty of every military officer to maintain “Good order and Discipline” in his or her command, I await General Mattis’ orders, as I trust those in the service do also..
I rest my case…
Those of us that served during the Viet Nam war can understand completely the consequences of Congress meddling in the running of the military, which directly led to 59,000 young Americans coming home in body bags, and multitudes of others destroyed physically and mentally for life…This House of Representatives voted to allow the military to run the military…as it should be…
I applaud their courage on this issue…
Tom Backers
USMC (1968-1976)
USCG (1981-1997)
Retired
(11)Nuh Uh.
(0)
Excellent background on this issue, sorely lacking elsewhere in the public debate. Rep. Justin Amash also took a whipping for his principled vote on this amendment.
One exception to the rule stated here that the "Commander in Chief has discretion over the military budget, Congress DOES NOT." Congress ALWAYS holds the purse strings. There is no reason to tighten them when presidential (departmental) policy is in alignment, as now.
But where was Rep. Hartzler when President Obama implemented the change in transgender policy last year??? An antagonistic president is the reason we have branches with opposing powers. Last year, the amendment would have been timely. This year, it smacks of grandstanding.