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While overshadowed by the ruling on the Affordable Care Act, the House of Representatives voted 255-67 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions related to documents on the botched Fast and Furious operation. Many Democrats walked out in protest before the vote. Seventeen Democrats actually voted with the Republicans, one of which was Joe Donnelly, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Indiana. As an Indiana native, I am incredibly disappointed in Congressman Donnelly, but that’s a topic for another post.

I’m not really going to get into much of the investigation on Fast and Furious as there are plenty of places to find both sides of the issue. The Republican conspiracy theory about Fast and Furious is that Democrats intentionally botched the operation to provide evidence for stricter gun control laws in the United States, essentially letting a US Border Patrol officer die for political gain. There is, however, absolutely no evidence of this. [Aside: But now that you mention it…maybe we should use this as an example of how ridiculous our gun laws are.] The House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa himself recently admitted that there was no evidence linking the White House to the operation.

So what are the House Republicans doing? The contempt vote will obviously fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Congressman Issa essentially ordered a contempt vote – without any evidence – under the assumption that the withheld documents would make the White House and the Justice Department look bad. President Obama has already claimed Executive Privilege for these documents. Should the Congress really be using its time like this?

Republicans have repeatedly said that they want to talk about jobs. Their actions, however, prove that this is a blatant lie. Republicans have pushed anti-abortion bills throughout the country, including in the Congress. Arizona Congressman Trent Franks has made it his pet project to restrict abortion rights in Washington DC, where the federal government holds some local governing power. Franks has denied Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton‘s, the only person representing DC in Congress (albeit without voting power), request to speak on the issue that affects only her constituents and none of Franks’s. Congressman Franks has yet to explain how restrict abortion in DC will help create jobs.

In response to President Obama’s decision to stop prosecuting DREAMers, Governor Romney refused to state his position on the issue of deporting children that entered the country illegally, saying instead that the decision takes focus away from real immigration reform. This would imply that Romney and his Republicans in Congress want immigration reform. However, Republicans are trying to limit abortion in DC and holding the Attorney General of the United States in contempt despite any evidence of wrongdoing. Speaker Boehner said that President Obama and the Democrats made no attempt to work with Congress in regards to immigration policy. Anyone with a memory longer than 2 years knows this is a lie, as Obama and Harry Reid tried to pass the DREAM Act in 2010 but failed to beat the Republican filibuster with only Richard Lugar and Lisa Murkowski voting with the Democrats for cloture. The DREAM Act passed the House with only 8 Republicans voting for it. So, if the Senate followed basic majority rule, the act would have passed. The point here, however, is that President Obama has tried to work with Congress on immigration reform – and it was the Republicans that voted against it. Republicans had an opportunity to pass a humane immigration policy but decided against it.

There are plenty of important issues facing our nation right now. The economy is still in desperate need of stimulus, our banking system is still “too big to fail,” our infrastructure is deteriorating, the student loan bubble is growing even larger, and the immigration problem remains unsolved. Despite this, Republicans are holding a pointless contempt vote for the Attorney General of the United States. Prior to Holder, no sitting Cabinet official has been held in contempt. Republicans are setting a terrible partisan precedent that I fear will become all-too-common in the future.

During this election season, Republicans will continue to say that they want “real” immigration reform, to “repeal and replace” Obamacare (yet they have no plan on the “replace” aspect), and other large-scale bills. Republicans will say that they want to win the Senate, the presidency, and keep the House so they can improve the economy. Don’t buy it. Republicans have consistently refused to work with Democrats on the very issues that they supposedly want to talk about. During Congressman Boehner’s reign as Speaker, there have been no real plans to fix anything in this country; they’d rather focus on anti-abortion bills, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and holding Obama’s Cabinet in contempt during a witch hunt investigation. We need real reform in this country, and despite their words, Republicans have made absolutely no attempt to get and have shown no signs that they even desire reform.