The President made recess appointments to the NLRB and CFPB, and the Republicans are vewy vewy angwy. This Washington Post editorial agrees with the President.
Republicans may well be correct that Mr. Obama is playing politics with these appointments. He announced the Cordray appointment during a stump speech in swing-state Ohio, where he railed against Republican obstructionism. His supporters in organized labor will no doubt be pleased that he filled the slots on the NLRB.The Republicans stopped playing the civil society game years ago. Like Ayn Rand's Atlas, the GOP simply shrugged and stopped playing the game called civility. They decided to pretty much shut down Democratic judicial appointments, and lots of other appointments, because they could. The idea being that they'd tie up Democrats' hands until a Republican takes over. Well, President Obama finally shrugged back.
But so what? Both the consumer bureau and the labor relations board are agencies of the U.S. government, created by Congress, and it is inexcusable that congressional obstructionism would leave them unable to function. If Republicans don’t like the structure or purpose of either agency, they should try to alter them through legislation. Meanwhile their filibustering against qualified nominees to make political points or extort concessions from the White House cripples government and discourages good people from serving. That is the real poisonous practice, in which both parties have engaged. Until there is a de-escalation, the country will continue to pay a high price.
