The other day, I read a post by DocDawg, which was titled “My Senator is a Republican. And for Once, That’s a Good Thing”. While DocDawg is a master of brevity and I am not, it inspired me to write my own Senator, John Cornyn. I didn’t write Ted Cruz because the man is facile and shallow and I didn’t see a lot of point to writing to an empty suit. I did write Mr. Cornyn though because I’ve met the guy when he was the Attorney General in Texas and while we’ll never agree on much of anything, he seemed like a pleasant and intelligent man. I have to post such communications on his page so I don’t have the original letter that I wrote him but in it I outlined my concerns about the Trump administration and his apparent lack of enthusiasm about providing meaningful oversight.
In response, Mr. Cornyn’s office wrote me an insulting reply about how very seriously he takes his responsibility and how very important transparency is to him. I read that response this morning and immediately decided to write him back and this time to save it and share it here publicly.
Without further ado, my response to my Republican Senator:
Once again you have trivialized my very real concerns with platitudes, excuses and facile attempts at misdirection. I don't need a lesson in government from you or anyone else. We don't have any effective checks or balances when one party, (the Republicans) control both Houses of Congress and refuse to do any oversight. In your letter you say:
To alleviate the dangers inherent in centralized power, the U.S. Constitution establishes three separate, but equal, branches of government: the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. Our Founding Fathers developed a system of checks and balances to prevent the accumulation of excessive power in any single branch. Within this system, Congress has the duty to provide critical oversight of the executive branch and determine how taxpayer dollars are spent.
I take this responsibility seriously...
What have you done about that, Mr. Cornyn? When did you go to the White House and demand that he cooperate with your "coequal" branch and carry out the sanctions that you authorized and insisted upon? When have you written the White House to demand that they cooperate with investigation?
Moving on, I couldn't help but notice that you failed to address my concerns about the emoluments clause and Trump’s flagrant violation of it, (see the same Article II of the US Constitution that you cited a little further down). To wit:
Domestic emoluments:
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Foreign emoluments, also called the “Title of Nobility” clause:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State
All of which Trump nakedly and flagrantly violates every day by selling foreign produced "Presidential" crap for his own enrichment, featuring the Presidential Seal and other official trappings of the office and accepting money from foreign agents and government officials who stay at his properties. He continues to golf at his own properties while the taxpayers foot the bill for him to eat Big Macs and play golf.
We are also on the hook to put up the Secret Service and whatever other government officials who accompany him on his almost weekly junkets to Florida or other properties,
from which he still hasn’t divested himself. Foreign leaders are
steered to the Trump Hotel in DC when they visit, further enriching him personally, in
direct violation of the emoluments clause. His son in law (who can't even get a security clearance) apparently travels the world, making deals to benefit himself and his father in law, rather than the United States. The Saudi Crown Prince has openly boasted about how he has
Jared Kushner "in his pocket" after such a visit by Trump’s son in law. He even sells hats and all kinds of other swag,
(none of which is made in the United States) for his personal enrichment while bleating about the loss of American manufacturing jobs.
What have you done about that, Mr. Cornyn? Where was the oversight there? Was your lack of oversight an oversight, (pun intended) or was it just another example of your refusing to do your job again? What would you have done or said had Mr. Obama sold cheap crap with official signs and symbols of the office emblazoned upon them? Do you think that "apoplectic" would be too strong a word to describe your reaction to such a case? These things are documented and obvious yet you have the guts to tell me about "oversight"?
I believe open government is an essential requirement of democracy. Transparency allows citizens to view how government operates, permits an honest exchange of information that ensures government accountability, and upholds the American ideal that government never rules without the consent of the governed.
You talk about "open government" and "transparency" yet these things are entirely foreign to the Trump administration. Hell, we can't even see his tax returns for made up reasons that you are apparently fine with. In addition:
*
David Nunes is writing fake memos that we weren't allowed to read while
Trey Gowdy hasn't issued one subpoena in regard to any of these things and House Republicans have even refused to even
allow the debate of subpoena requests no fewer than 19 times, while the very same committee wasn’t shy about issuing subpoenas for Secretary Clinton.
These are just a few of the instances in which "transparency" in the Trump administration is scoffed at by them. They sneer while your vaunted "checks and balances" are entirely ignored by the people charged with exercising them. You know, that "responsibility" that you take ever so "seriously".
What have you done about ensuring transparency, Mr. Cornyn? When did you stand on the Senate floor and demand the kind of transparency that you demanded of the Obama administration? When have you demanded that the FBI open the Trump files like you demanded they do of Secretary Clinton's in 2016? You used to whine incessantly about the "secrecy" in passing the Affordable Care Act, despite the fact that there were dozens of open hearings and debates, there were Republicans well represented in every case and it took over a year of talking about it to even get to a vote, whereas the Tax Cuts for the Rich was drawn up behind closed doors over the space of a couple of days with zero Democratic input. WHERE WAS YOUR COMMITMENT TO OVERSIGHT AND TRANSPARENCY THEN, MR CORNYN?
Moving on though, you also say that you want to “strengthen our national security and support our veterans and military personnel, protect U.S. sovereignty….” Let’s take those point by point:
1) Strengthen national security how? By firing his national security adviser and hiring John Bolton who has enormous conflicts of interest, has promised to purge White House officials who are “disloyal” to Trump and never saw a war he didn’t like? By building a border wall? Okay, you did show some nuance on that but in the end you still insisted that a wall be part of the solution.
2) Support our veterans by privatizing the VA? Because making something for profit only makes it better, right?
3) Supporting our troops by banning a class of people from serving because Trump finds them creepy? A ban that has already been litigated no fewer than six times and has been found to be unconstitutional every single time? I guess that’s anther example of “fiscal responsibility”, right? I mean spending money to defend a policy that has already been overturned half a dozen times is what I think of when I think of fiscal responsibility….
I like how you just glibly say the most patently false and transparently absurd things and expect me to believe them. For example in your closing paragraph you say that:
During the 115th Congress, I look forward to addressing the critical issues facing Texans and will continue my efforts to restore America’s fiscal health, help Texas businesses innovate and create jobs, strengthen our national security, support our veterans and military personnel, protect U.S. sovereignty, and tackle our health care challenges.
Did you expect me to believe those things just because it was you that said them? You're going to "restore America's fiscal health"? How? By blowing more 1.5 TRILLION dollar holes in the budget? Let's look at what else you’ve said when you wrote these words
3 years ago this week. I’ve highlighted a few choice bits:
The truth is undeniable–Washington has a spending problem. For far too long, federal spending has gone nearly unchecked, resulting in trillion-dollar deficits, a ballooning national debt, and a government that now borrows forty cents out of every dollar it spends from places like China. Senator Cornyn is fighting President Obama’s out-of-control spending agenda in Washington. By introducing and gathering support for a conservative, balanced budget amendment to the Constitution supported by every Senate Republican, Senator Cornyn is fighting to bring the same fiscal responsibility to Washington that Texas families and small businesses practice every day. If you have to balance your budget every month, so should Washington.
Senator Cornyn’s balanced budget amendment caps spending, ensuring that government does not spend more than it takes in . For Texans, this is plain commonsense. But sadly, responsible spending is a foreign concept to many DC politicians. Washington’s spending addiction is not limited to President Obama. For nearly four years, Democrats in the Senate failed to pass a budget. When the White House again failed to submit a budget to Congress on time in 2013, Senator Cornyn and other Republicans introduced the No budget, No Pay legislation, forcing Senate Democrats to pass a budget or have their pay withheld. Senator Cornyn believes that if you fail to do your job, you shouldn’t be paid for it. It’s as simple as that.
Really, Mr. Cornyn? Trillion dollar deficits were a catastrophe under President Obama but under Trump they’re just peachy? Have you given up your salary because you failed over and over to submit a budget? Here’s what you wrote me regarding the Tax Cuts for the Rich act when I expressed my concern about that:
On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1; P.L. 115-97) was signed into law by President Trump. This legislation is a historic overhaul of our burdensome and overly complex tax code and marks the first comprehensive reform in over three decades.
Under Obama, any spending was irresponsible but under Trump it’s such a wonderful thing to blow giant holes in the economy. Got it. There’s a word for that, Mr, Cornyn: hypocrisy.
In conclusion then, Mr. Cornyn, this documented evidence paints a picture of an administration that is in business to service itself and one family in particular and a compliant Cabinet and Republican Congress who are clearly putting one party over the welfare of the nation. When I express my concerns, you respond with condescension and a refresher course in junior High School government class. You lie, omit and obfuscate and arrogantly expect me to believe it. There’s a word for that too. It’s called “gaslighting” and that is exactly what you’re trying to do to me. While not unexpected, I find it incredibly insulting that you would give me such low marks for intelligence. I’m not one of your fans but I am a Texan who is just as entitled to your representation as any of them. All you can do when I raise very real and exhaustively documented concerns about this illegitimate President and the Republicans in Congress who, rather than conducting oversight, only serve to enable his malfeasance, is gaslight me and pretend that I don’t understand how government works? For shame, Senator Cornyn, for shame. I don’t know what kind of ill has gripped the country I served that has people openly celebrating bigotry and buffoonery while one of the major political parties enables it and defends it but I hope that I live to see things set right and see people like you expelled from the office which you abused when there was a Democratic President and that you fail to use to even ineffectually bleat about corruption when the President is Republican.
I cannot wait to see the integrity and honor of my nation restored and your party relegated to generations of irrelevance.