Opinion: Republicans shouldn't complain about democratic legislation after their legislative failure

Sam Stroud With a Democratic-led House, we see nothing but one embarrassment of a bill after another. Whether it’s a bill saying we have to get rid of farting cows, or some other far-reaching endeavor, Republicans love to complain about these new proposals. But, they have no right to — they had their chance to act, and they watched it pass by. For the last two years, Republicans had complete control of both the Congress and the White House. What happened? Not much. Americans got to watch GOP members grandstand, pout and insult each other. For rational and mature Republicans, this was very frustrating, to say the least. The Republican Party was put in power to address issues such as healthcare, immigration and federal spending. It’s no secret they fumbled the ball on all three of those issues. To be fair, they did a little more than absolutely nothing. They did pass a tax reform that was greatly needed, and Republican senators have also confirmed a large number of judicial nominees. After that, their list of notable accomplishments quickly ends. Instead of watching people who were put in power to fix issues do their job, we got a group of incompetent politicians who spent their two years in office bumbling about one issue to the next. Whether it was the disastrous attempt to “repeal and replace” Obamacare or the through-the-roof spending from Republican “deficit hawks,” Republicans let their base down. They didn’t even try a half-baked attempt to fix immigration. Now that the Republican Party is out of power in the House, these issues which they barely addressed or ignored entirely are now suddenly important to them. All of a sudden, they want to address the border or amend the Constitution. It’s too late for that now. The party must be held accountable. If Republicans think they can sit on their hands for two years and then get the House back after one midterm, they are out of their minds. Republicans need to do something with their power when they get it. Say what you want about Democrats, but when they have power, they use it. When Republicans had it, next to nothing happened. Now they are bemoaning the rise of socialism, the outrageous statements made by some representatives in the Democratic caucus and the brain-dead legislation that is being proposed. The fact of the matter is if they had done what they promised to do in 2016, they wouldn’t have gotten crushed in the midterms. Congressional Republicans have to actually act on what they say if they want to stay in the majority. So, here’s a tip — you all blew your last shot at competent governing. Stop whining and do your job until you get another chance.