Frustrated by more than a year of stonewalling from the Obama/Holder Justice Department on its probe into the Fast and Furious scandal, the US House of Representatives approved an amendment to slash staff salaries until the department gives a full accounting of its deadly gunrunning operation. Fast and Furious has been implicated in the murders of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent Jaime Zapata, as well over 300 citizens of Mexico. The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, slashes department salaries by $1,000,000.
“Congress has been patient – indeed too patient in my judgment – with the Department of Justice and its failure to comply with the lawful request for the production of documents,” said Rep. Gowdy.
The House is also working on a separate measure that would hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his department’s failure to cooperate with the House investigation into the Fast and Furious operation.
suggestion: this is a good start; however, they should have cut each person’s pay by say 10% per pay period until they comply, completely. and make the cuts permanent with GS demotions to go with it as the pay goes down. the worse that could happen is not get the info., and all the nut job lawyers quit.
maybe barry-o could pay them out of his stolen slush fund.
It has been so long since I’ve seen a “right path” act that I couldn’t even name the last one. This is wonderful. Superb. Just grand.
If this holds politically and is passed into law, any Executive Branch attempt to get around the salary issue is an impeachable offense. And probably a criminal one too.
I have counselled patience in the past, but my patience is near its end. Haul them forth. Cite them for contempt. Impeach as necessary.
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. The leftists in the admin have been carrying on a war for the past three plus years. Now is the time for law abiding society to take the fight to them. Give them no rest, look for their weaknesses and attack. Ridicule their stupidity (hear that Joe Biden?) and hypocrisy. Separate them from their allies (lame stream media). Cut their source of lucre and let their slush funds wither and die!!
No contempt citation will ever see the light of day. Eric Cantor and John Boehner will make sure of it. What a farce. We should be in the midst of Holder’s impeachment by now.
So, genius, how do you plan to get a conviction in the Senate? How do you expect to find any law enforcement authority for the House. If Holder is found in contempt of the House, it is the USDOJ, you might recall he runs it, that must take legal action against him. It’s all so simple for you clueless “true conservatives.”
Art, I can ‘hear’ in your reply your true intellect: Just as in many lawsuits, the true damage is done in the ‘process’. Money being spent to defend a relatively ‘baseless’ allegation, prosecution being brought on the chance of fame or some remote possibility of success. It’s the process. Even the MSM would be covering this story, they would have little choice, it is in that coverage damage to a corrupt DOJ would be done. So, file this in your office under ‘true conservative’ responses and drop the ‘clueless’, unless of course you decide to deploy it to your file. Semper Fi.
Actually, what they should do is zero out all of DOJ, FBI included. (Patrick Poole had a column on PJM earlier today about the incompetence of the FBI, and I commented that the FBI needs to be replaced.)
“The amendment … slashes department salaries by $1,000,000.”
$1 mil doesn’t sound like ‘slashes’ to me.
Right. As the first comment points out, it’s a start.
But why not close the purse altogether until they produce the documents? If that’s too harsh, all they need do is deliver the paperwork and the money flows again.
There is no reason to obfuscate unless they’re hiding evidence. And it’s pretty clear by now that’s exactly what’s going on.
A measure passing the House must also be passed in the Senate. Then a conference committee must iron out the differences between the two bills. Then the agreed upon version must be re-passed in the House and Senate. Finally, if that passes, the measure must be signed by the President. If he vetoes it, then the measure must be re-passed by a two/thirds majority in both houses in order to override the veto.
Ask yourselves,”What is the likelihood of this happening?”
Pretty good if the alternative is no hike in the debt ceiling.
HYC, see my reply to Art. Many of you guys don’t get it. It’s the process that bears fruit, not the practical reality of a conclusion per se. Semper Fi.
Why not slash them 100% until they do The People’s work?
A contempt of Congress measure does not follow the same procedure as impeachment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contempt_of_Congress
Failure to honor a subpoena by a House committee is grounds for a citation of contempt. As I read it, it does not require the approval of the Senate though the Senate Sgt. of Arms does do the arrest. Since the House is majority Republican and a couple of House Democrats have already said that they’ll sign on to the contempt citation Holder is quickly running out of air space.