Nancy Pelosi Is Solely To Blame For The State Our Government Is in Today.

Nancy Pelosi Is Solely To Blame For The State Our Government Is in Today.
by
Julio Gonzalez, M.D., J.D.
 
Fox News Host Sheppard Smith seems to relish reciting his perception of the events leading to the government shutdown.  According to Shep, President Trump called a meeting with then Incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.  During that meeting, the President said he was going to shut down the government, that he would carry the happily mantel, and that he was not going to blame Schumer for it.  
 
And, as Shep, likes to say, "That's it."
 
Of course the purpose of Smith's repeated recitation is to make it clear why, in his view, the President is responsible for the government shutdown.  The truth is that the dynamics of the events leading to the government shutdown is more complicated than what Smith espouses, but while who bears the responsibility for the government shutdown may be debatable, there is only one party responsible for its propagation, the Democratic Party. And within that Party, there is only one person who has demonstrated the recalcitrance, selfishness, and irresponsibility to singlehandedly carry the blame.  That person is Nancy Pelosi.  
 
That Pelosi is the single most disruptive person in government continues to brightly shine.  In the history of the United States, there has never been a Speaker who has refused a willing President wishing to directly deliver the State of the Union Address to the House of Representatives.  
 
The delivery of a report on the state of the union is a constitutional requirement under Article II, Section 3.  However, the Constitution does not prescribe the manner in which such a report is to be delivered.  The tradition of an in-person delivery of the State of the Union was begun by George Washington himself, who, on January 8, 1790, while the seat of government was still in New York, took a stroll from his residence to Congress to deliver his report.  
 
The tradition was discontinued by Thomas Jefferson who thought the endeavor to regal in appearance only to have the tradition resurrected by Woodrow Wilson in 1913.  Although some presidents have chosen to deliver the speech in writing, no president who has desired to deliver the speech in person has ever been turned down; that is until Nancy Pelosi did so on Wednesday.  Pelosi's selfish, immature, and arrogant action caps a series of events making it clear that Pelosi is the sole reason for the propagation of this shutdown, and no one else.
 
Bear in mind that Pelosi was the one who forced the government shutdown by refusing to allocate "one dollar" to help fund the wall, a wall for whose funding she has voted in the past.  Nancy Pelosi is the one person who had the authority to reprimand one of her members for calling the President a viciously vile word and did not take it.  (Contrast this with the Republicans' swift and decisive sanction of Representative Steve King in response to his comments on white supremacy.)  Nancy Pelosi is the one who supported her members traveling to Puerto Rico while the government was shut down.  It was Nancy Pelosi who attempted to leave the country for about a week this week, virtually guaranteeing that furloughed workers would miss their second paycheck. And it was Nancy Pelosi who rejected the President's third known compromise proposal before even giving him the opportunity to deliver it.  
 
Many like to point the finger at President Trump for having partially shut down the government.  I would argue the point, but okay.  Whether we agree on that point or not is subject to discussion.  One thing is clear, however, the only reason our federal government is in the position it's in today rests only on the shoulders of one recalcitrant, arrogant, selfish, and disruptive individual: Nancy Pelosi.
 
 
Dr. Julio Gonzalez is an orthopaedic surgeon and lawyer living in Venice, Florida. He is the author of The Federalist Pages and served in the Florida House of Representatives. He can be reached through www.thefederalistpages.com to arrange a lecture or book signing.
 
 

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