Hegseth impeachment vote

Honest and good-hearted political representatives can disagree about policies for implementing the federal government’s responsibility to protect our safety and freedoms. But they have no excuse for allowing public officials to violate the rule of law—to violate the Constitution. Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (KY) offered articles of impeachment of the Sec of Deference Pete Hegseth for exactly such violations.

“The House voted to refer the resolution to committee, allowing Republicans to stop it from advancing during the lame-duck session. The 211-204 vote effectively punted any efforts to impeach the Pentagon chief until Democrats take back the majority.” The Hill – House Hegseth impeachment vote blocked. While all Republicans except Massie voted to send the resolution to committee, their vote succeeded “thanks largely to almost a dozen Democrats failing to show up for the early evening vote…. due to gridlock on Pennsylvania Ave., caused by a traffic accident.” 

In the recent midterm elections, the voters severely punished the Republicans for Trump’s lawless corruption. Impeaching Hegseth was an opportunity for Republicans to demonstrate that they got the message. Sadly, they chose the ignore Hegseth’s lawlessness.

“At his press conference on Monday, Massie stressed that he wasn’t seeking Hegseth’s impeachment because he was bad at his job, but because he is operating in violation of the law, and he encouraged other lawmakers to read the eight articles.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘I think Pete Hegseth is effective. He’s good at his job, and so I don’t want to vote for these articles of impeachment.’ Well, the reality is, we’re not impeaching him for being bad at his job. In fact, he was very effective at killing schoolchildren in Iran,” Massie said, referring to the February 28 US strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, southern Iran, which killed at least 156 civilians, including 120 children.

“He was very effective at extrajudicial killings [bombing speed boats in the Caribbean]. There’s no argument in these impeachment articles that he’s ineffective. The argument here is that he’s broken laws and he’s violated the Constitution,” he added. The Hill

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Author: Warren Coats

I specialize in advising central banks on monetary policy and the development of the capacity to formulate and implement monetary policy.  I joined the International Monetary Fund in 1975 from which I retired in 2003 as Assistant Director of the Monetary and Financial Systems Department. While at the IMF I led or participated in missions to the central banks of over twenty countries (including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey, West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Zimbabwe) and was seconded as a visiting economist to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1979-80), and to the World Bank's World Development Report team in 1989.  After retirement from the IMF I was a member of the Board of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority from 2003-10 and of the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review from 2010-2017.  Prior to joining the IMF I was Assistant Prof of Economics at UVa from 1970-75.  I am currently a fellow of Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise.  In March 2019 Central Banking Journal awarded me for my “Outstanding Contribution for Capacity Building.”  My recent books are One Currency for Bosnia: Creating the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina; My Travels in the Former Soviet Union; My Travels to Afghanistan; My Travels to Jerusalem; and My Travels to Baghdad. I have a BA in Economics from the UC Berkeley and a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. My dissertation committee was chaired by Milton Friedman and included Robert J. Gordon. I live in National Landing Va 22202

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