Tuberville should keep fighting: God knows it’s worth it

OPINION:

President Biden’s White House has been abusing power by unilaterally ordering the Department of Defense and U.S. military to advance the left’s “woke” agenda and abortion-on-demand policies without congressional authorization. This behavior has become the trademark of an administration that bends over backward to appease Democratic Party extremists at all costs.

If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans who believe Mr. Biden is wrong and Washington is broken, you are correct. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, former head football coach at Auburn University, agrees with you — and he has the guts to stand up to the failed status quo and do something about it.

Mr. Tuberville’s principled, monthslong hold on military nominations and promotions over the Defense Department’s abortion travel policy has been in the spotlight lately because it has gotten in the way of business as usual in our nation’s capital. The Biden administration imposed the new Pentagon abortion rule on America as if we’re living in a dictatorship.

The Democratic-controlled Senate, under the mismanagement of Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, has refused to hold a vote on the rule because the American people don’t support allowing our Defense Department to focus on radical left-wing abortion politics instead of defending Americans from Hamas terrorists and Mr. Biden’s open border policies.

“I cannot simply sit idly by while the Biden administration injects politics in our military from the White House and spends taxpayers’ dollars on abortion,” Mr. Tuberville has repeatedly said in his ironclad stand for the unborn and the Constitution. The senior senator from Alabama is exactly right.

Members of the Washington uni-party and unelected federal bureaucracy absolutely hate guys like Mr. Tuberville, an outsider who got into politics out of concern for the future of his country. The biased mainstream media is trying to create a false narrative that the controversy is all about Mr. Tuberville’s “irresponsible” position rather than the radical policy that caused him to place the hold in the first place.

Instead of attacking Mr. Tuberville over his principled hold, establishment Republican senators should be putting pressure on Mr. Schumer to put the rule up for a vote or keep the Senate in session longer so it can move more of the nominations in question through regular order.

With the Biden administration, Mr. Tuberville sees an out-of-control executive branch whose preferred mode of operation is bypassing Congress and doing as it pleases without regard for the Constitution or rule of law. Look no further than Mr. Biden’s illegal student loan repayment program. For nearly 100 years and counting, the executive branch has been growing exponentially to the point that it’s only a matter of time before it deems the legislative and judicial branches no longer useful. For too long, Congress and the courts have been inadequate in flexing their muscle to fight back against the tyrannical and ever-expanding executive branch that our Founding Fathers warned about.

Because of this irresponsible behavior, the federal government is $33 trillion in debt, overflowing with waste, fraud, and abuse, drowning in overly burdensome regulations, and looking for new ways to restrict freedom each and every day. There’s no other way to put it - these days, the executive branch abuses power with such ease it’s become an existential threat to our God-given liberties.

The list of failures occurring throughout our government seems to go on and on and on. The founders argued for a small central government designed to do a few things well, not many things poorly. Today, our federal government has strayed badly off course, and that’s why so few Americans believe it’s a trustworthy institution - and who could blame them?

They see a politicized Justice Department; an IRS with more employees than the population of Scranton, Pennsylvania; a Department of Homeland Security more concerned with opening borders than securing them; and a Defense Department that’s focused on defending abortion on demand instead of winning wars and keeping Americans safe.

That’s where Mr. Tuberville’s duty comes in as a member of the Senate. The legislative branch is supposed to provide a check on the executive branch by questioning its policies and funding requests. Inconvenient, commonsense moves such as Mr. Tuberville’s hold make career politicians lose their minds. But the truth is that far more senators should be placing holds on other departments and agencies rather than attacking Mr. Tuberville for taking a stand and doing his job. The time for Congress to fight back is long overdue.

To stop Mr. Tuberville, now the uni-party in the Senate is considering passing a resolution to change the rules on a “temporary” basis to bypass his hold in order to approve Biden’s DoD nominations en bloc with just one vote.

The Senate and the American people should reject this bad idea because, as President Ronald Reagan said, “Nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.” Mr. Tuberville deserves great thanks for the work he’s done fighting for the unborn and the rule of law over the past several months.

He should keep fighting; God knows it’s worth it.

• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.