In the Weekly Republican Address, North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven calls on the president to send job-creating free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama to Congress for approval.
I laughed when Hoeven opened this week's GOP address with a reference to Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet. That is an exquisite example of congressional impotence in the face of an overreaching executive. The chairman of the Naval Appropriations Committee, Senator Eugene Hale, threatened to withhold funding for the Great White Fleet. Roosevelt had the authority so he sent the fleet anyway basically daring Hale to abandon it at sea.
Ironically, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-IN) threatened to de-funded the war in Libya earlier this week and on the eve of his deadline Hoeven reminds the world of the limits of congressional authority. Nice.
Hoeven's comments about the economy are spot on. Here's hoping he chooses better historical examples in the future.
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