The US takes serious risks with the way it runs its important government departments. It is bizarre that the opposition Republicans can get so close to closing down the Department of Homeland Security. This week they seriously debated a bill that would have rejected funding for the department that leads the fight against internal terror, and all they came up with was a bill that extended funding for until September, which in itself is a very bad position to be in and brings back memories of how the Republicans almost stopped the US federal government from working a few years ago.
This nonsense was hailed as a victory for rational government, which is a very significant illustration of how far to the libertarian right the Republicans have moved. They have become dangerously detached from the reality of running one of the world’s largest countries if they can seriously consider stopping their security services to the great detriment of their nation, and misuse their power over the federal budget. Congress should pass a single budget that will fund the entire government for a year. It should stop using its powers to disrupt the administration. The Republican Speaker John Boehner took pride in defeating the right wing of his own party by getting this ‘clean’ bill through the House, which funded the department without adding any conditions about reversing President Barack Obama’s immigration policies. The problem is that this was only one skirmish in a very long battle that will last until the 2016 November election for the presidency, and can give no one much confidence in the continuity of American governance.
