Editorial: Dems play blame game

We don’t know what, if any, resolutions Capitol Hill pols are jotting down in the run-up to New Year’s. Clearly, the list for 2022 was topped with “spend as much taxpayer money as possible.”

But we have a few that lawmakers could stand to make — if not to better themselves, then to improve the lives of Americans.

First, quit the blame game. When buses of migrants were dropped off at Vice President Harris’s Washington, D.C., residence on Christmas Eve, Democrats went ballistic. It was Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s fault, it was cruel, it was freezing, the migrants had to be given blankets.

But it was freezing in Texas as well, and migrants, not dressed for the weather, struggled to keep warm. El Paso, which has declared an emergency due to the surge in migrants, rushed to find beds and open emergency shelters.

Here’s the thing — not all immigrants can stay in federally funded shelters. Only those who have immigration paperwork after they’ve turned themselves in to Border Patrol are permitted. It’s a federal policy, says the city, as the government is helping to pay for these shelters. And there are only so many charity organizations setting up makeshift shelters to go around.

Instead of blaming Abbott when the immigration crisis spreads from Texas to the tony neighborhoods of D.C., Dems on Capitol Hill can work to get the crisis under control — and that calls for more than saying “don’t come here” while working to end Title 42.

And if problems aren’t the GOP’s fault, then they are Vladimir Putin’s, whom President Biden has blamed for inflation.

“Today’s inflation report confirms what Americans already know. Putin’s price hike is hitting America hard,” Biden said earlier this year.

While Putin’s war in Ukraine has played a role in oil price hikes particularly, it’s not the smoking gun. Prices were spiking months before Russia sent out the tanks. And if Biden had turned the spigot back on in terms of American oil production, that would have gone a long way to ease the sticker shock at the pump.

While Democrats are blaming everyone under the sun — except themselves — for the country’s problems, their penchant for spending taxpayers’ money continues unabated. And not just the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill to keep the government ticking for another year, but bailouts for favored groups.

The high cost of college tuition was a hot topic this year, and instead of calling out universities for inflated tuition and fees, student loan debt was deemed a crisis that needed (expensive) action.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who blames corporations for “price gouging” the inflation rate into the stratosphere, doesn’t hold colleges in the same contempt. For her, and other like-minded progressives, the way to deal with outrageous college costs is to have the feds foot the bill. And when we say feds, we mean the American taxpayer.

Resolving to own their own mistakes and work to fix them may be a tall order for D.C. pols. But we’d be happy if they opted to show respect in 2023.

Not just for those with opposing views – but respect for their constituents.

We the people, who pay for their mistakes.