SUN HERALD | Editorial: Mississippi Rep. Steven Palazzo's grandstanding won't fix a thing

Rebuking President Barack Obama can't be the most pressing need of the United States.

We realize it's great theater and it riles up the president's enemies. But it shouldn't take attention away from health care, gun violence, transportation, the federal budget and a long list of problems Congress should be solving.

Rep. Steven Palazzo disagrees. He wants Congress to debate and vote on a resolution to censure the president. It will be a "historical and legal rebuke" to Obama, according to the congressman.

But it won't change anything. It won't roll back any of those executive orders from Obama. And it won't fix any of the problems we just mentioned.

Many in Palazzo's own party are wise to the game he's playing. Palazzo just a few weeks ago voted for an omnibus spending bill. The most conservative members of the GOP say he sold them out by voting for a bill that, among other things, funds Planned Parenthood and Obamacare. They say he's only trying to divert attention from that vote.

That wing of the party wants Palazzo to lead a charge to impeach Obama. He says he won't. That's the right call. Impeachment is an uphill battle and is unlikely to survive in the Senate where the GOP advantage is much smaller than the one in the House.

The people of the 4th Congressional District would be better served if Palazzo worked on solutions to the highway funding dilemma, found ways to help veterans who fought our wars and are struggling at home and helped the president find a way to lessen the gun violence that haunts America.

Americans, despite what the congressman wants them to believe, in poll after poll say they favor more strict laws on the sale of firearms. In Palazzo's world, Americans want to punish Obama for trying to do that.

Palazzo obviously believes he's giving the crowd what it wants, another attack on a relatively unpopular president. But Obama's approval ratings are in the upper 40 percentile. Meanwhile, Congress' approval rating is in the low teens.

Political grandstanding by congressmen such as Palazzo assures it will stay there.

This editorial represents the views of the Sun Herald editorial board. Opinions expressed by columnists, cartoonists and letter writers are their own.

This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 10:19 PM with the headline "SUN HERALD | Editorial: Mississippi Rep. Steven Palazzo's grandstanding won't fix a thing ."