Republicans grope for way to kill Paris climate agreement

Republicans are running out of ways to undermine the Obama administration's commitments as part of the Paris climate agreement. GOP lawmakers acknowledge that they won't get a vote on the international accord, which they vehemently oppose. But Republicans and their allies are still pursuing channels in each branch of government, as they look to torpedo the agreement. Many hoped that the Green Climate Fund was their best chance to do just that. As negotiators were hashing out a final climate deal, Republicans vowed to block American contribution to the fund, an international pool of public and private money directed to help poorer nations prepare for climate change. But the omnibus spending deal passed this week allows Obama to find GCF funding elsewhere in the federal budget, effectively taking the matter out of Congress’ hands. “The prohibition about doing it was very outspoken,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a vocal Obama critic, told The Hill. “You heard me say that: ‘No you can’t do it.’ But then they say, ‘Well, we can do it within accounts.’ So, that’s where it is.” Even so, critics of the deal say there are ways to eventually disrupt his climate promises...more

Notice that R's "grope", as if they are trying to rape Mother Earth.  And R's don't oppose bad public policy, they try to "kill" agreements and "disrupt" Presidential promises.

Having said that, the R's had their chance to address this in the budget and failed to act, and instead played Santa Claus and gave Obama all kinds of gifts.

Do the R's really expect the public to believe the  President and his agencies can spend money on this fund and Congress has no control over that spending?  The agencies have no money to spend unless Congress appropriates that money to them.  If the agencies will pay for it by moving money around "within accounts", guess who gave them that authority?  Congress did.

This is another example of how Congress has delegated authority to the Executive branch and then sits back and hollers about how they use that authority.  The problem with the R's is they can't revoke that authority when the D's control the White House and they decline to revoke it when an R is in the White House.

The other problem here, of course, is the R's are scared to death of a budget confrontation with Obama.  They don't invoke their Constitutional authority to control spending because they are political weaklings, more interested in preserving perks, position and staying in office than doing what is right.