>>96169We must end the politicization and weaponization of government against Americans in advance of radical woke ideology. Consider the NIH and CDC pushing lockdowns and giving immunity to giant corporations; the FBI targeting parents who question school boards or gender surgeries; the IRS looking to target people in the name of revenue. Again, all of this is fueled by rampant and reckless spending of money that we do not have.
We must restore sovereignty and the rule of law — beginning with a strong, secure border for both the well-being of Americans and the migrants who seek to come here, but, more importantly, because the rule of law matters. Open borders empower China and cartels while destabilizing our economy and the entire Western Hemisphere. We can and should stop that by demanding we turn away and detain rather than simply encounter and release.
We must end the assault on reliable American energy, both fossil fuels and nuclear power, in the irrational pursuit of unreliable energy — all of which drives up the cost of goods and services and hamstrings our national security and economic resilience.
We must restore our military to full strength, end woke governance and social engineering at the Pentagon, and unequivocally stand up to China.
We must end the meddling by government in the lives of Americans — lockdowns and mandates, and, in particular, the COVID-19 vaccine mandates causing people to lose jobs for daring to want to care for their own health.
These are the existential baseline questions that our nation must address both to be strong and to co-exist as a free people.
We must do more than merely hold oversight hearings. We must have large-scale Church Committee-style hearings to expose brazen abuses of power from NIH to FBI and everywhere in between by so many in this administration. We must not just expose that abuse of power, we must address it.
And oversight is still not enough. It is our duty to use the power of the purse boldly to force the Biden administration to the table to make changes. As James Madison wrote in Federalist 58: “The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose, the supplies requisite for the support of government …This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people.”
Right now, Republican leaders are running around whipping votes for new leadership positions. Will they use the power they have right now to hold up the December vote on the National Defense Authorization Act, to force changes to vaccine mandates? Will they demand changes at the Department of Defense to end woke indoctrination and accountability for spending in Afghanistan or Ukraine? Will they allow a long-term debt ceiling deal or a lame-duck omnibus spending bill that does not limit runaway spending, tackle the border, or unleash American energy? Will they allow a full debate of rules changes to empower rank-and-file members or continue to empower a handful of power brokers?
We must only support leaders who trust us to do our jobs as elected members of Congress, are clear about where they wish to take us, and who have demonstrated the resolve to take us there.
We cannot afford to choose leaders who will not change the way of this town, who will not stand up for the people who sent us here to change it.
Leadership is not a title; it’s an action. It’s something demonstrated and followed.
Chip Roy is a Republican representing Texas’s 21st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.