Do right and wrong still matter to us?

“Taxation without representation is tyranny.” Remember how we learned that this slogan inspired the early colonists? So outraged were they at the tyranny of taxes without their consent, those hardy colonists took up their muskets against the king’s army, the mighty British redcoats, and threw them out of their new country.

When it came time to put together this free and independent nation, to “dissolve the bonds to a tyrant King,” our forefathers laid out 28 of the king’s transgressions to “let Facts be submitted to a candid world,” they said. (And yes, to emphasize its importance, the word “Facts” is capitalized in the Declaration.) Among the transgressions most egregious they listed:

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good,” and “For imposing taxes on us without our consent.”

Thus they documented in their new Constitution that any new leader must swear to faithfully obey all laws, and that under no circumstances would our taxes be used for any reason not expressly approved by our Representatives. Congress, and only Congress, would have the power to appropriate money.

This article of the Constitution served us well until 1974, when then-President Richard Nixon refused to disperse funds Congress had authorized. In response, Congress passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which established a specific process for appropriations to be reviewed and approved or disapproved. The bill required by law that the President seek Representatives’ validation of any stops on appropriations he wanted to make. In other words, Congress reconfirmed the constitutional stipulation that only Congress can decide how our money will be spent, and laid out under what circumstances, if necessary, such appropriations may be held up.

As taxpayers dutifully coughing up a portion of each paycheck, it should at least be reassuring to know the president doesn’t get to freely use our tax dollars as his own private political bank account. It should be reassuring to know that our legislators are doing their job looking out for our interests and are fulfilling their sworn obligation to protect the Constitution.

Or are they? In his comments on impeachment, recently reported in ADN Dec. 8, Sen. Dan Sullivan appeared to know none of this. He stated as his objection to impeachment that there was a reason to hold up the Ukraine appropriation, claiming some “uncertainty whether Zelensky would be corrupt,” adding “and under federal law, we have to actually look at that before we send military aid.” Is he not aware of the exhaustive vetting of Ukraine and Zelensky by 17 different government agencies, including Congressional committees, budget committees, the Department of Defense, John Bolton and the National Security Commission, all of whom did “look at it” and not only approved the appropriation of military aid, but recognized its urgency?

Did Sen. Sullivan not get the memo that the excuse he proffered as a defense was proven Russian propaganda fanned by the Kremlin to prevent us from providing Ukraine with the help they need to ward off the Russian invasion? If, in the most likely scenario, Sen. Sullivan does indeed know all of this, but still chooses to repeat Russian propaganda over our own NSC director and the CIA, is he not aware the Congressional Budget Act requires consent of Congress before assigned, approved funds can be blocked? If there were legitimate concerns, can he explain why this didn’t happen? And finally does he not know any of those other laws about keeping foreigners out of our internal political business? Does he really want to assist Vladimir Putin to call the shots in our elections?

I realize there are those among us right now who would rather not hear anything that conflicts with what they want to believe, but what about the rest of us? Aren’t Alaskans clever enough to know when someone is pulling the wool over our eyes?

We have a choice. We can do what Mick Mulvaney told us to do in regards to our tax money used for presidential politics (“Get used to it”), or we can follow instead the words of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman: “Right matters.” Perhaps right has never mattered more than now. We have had more than 200 years of a Constitution that made us the envy of the world for our freedom and our democracy. Do we care enough to protect this sacred covenant from abuse or do we capitulate to phony talking points meant to hide its desecration? If we don’t have the gumption of our forefathers to stand against the misuse of power and the corrupt use of our tax dollars, we will end up in a dictatorship with Presidents to come who, like President Donald Trump, will break any law that doesn’t suit their self-interest and spend our dollars like King George lll, as if those dollars were their own.

In the end, we either hold on to the America we know and love where right matters, or we settle for some sorry remnant of what we once were and get used to it. If we wont insist on the first choice, then we will deserve what we get with the second.

Marian Elliott is a retired elementary school teacher and a UAA graduate. She lives in Wasilla.

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