Recently, Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer published another of her occasional updates for constituents. 

Ms. Fischer, on message as usual under the banner of “fiscal sanity,” related various earmarking victories for Nebraska communities and the common-sense approach the Republican-controlled Senate brings to America’s fiscal challenges.

In defending the Trump administration’s wholesale overhaul of the federal government’s mission—including canceling global aid programs and silencing the Voice of America overseas, pardoning dozens of violent criminals convicted of assaulting police, putting an unqualified person who traffics in conspiracy theories in charge of the nation’s health, offering insults and threats to our allies in Europe and the Americas rather than cooperation, accusing Ukraine of “starting a war” while laughing with Putin on his red carpet, sending troops into “Democrat”  cities against the will of local leaders (an action just ruled illegal), imposing tariffs on nations we don’t even trade with, and so on—Ms. Fischer argues that what she and her GOP colleagues are about is “reducing the reckless spending that has helped push our national debt past $37 trillion.” 

It’s true, you know, about the debt. It’s big. It was true in 2012, when Ms. Fischer was elected to the Senate. The debt was big in 2017, before Trump’s first term, and even bigger after. And, with the recent extension of the 2017 tax cuts, along with a quickly executed debt ceiling rise of some $4 trillion, it is projected to be even bigger in 2028. 

Because Republicans only complain about the nation’s debt when Democrats are in charge. As soon as a Republican president appears, these fears are magically transformed into “investing for growth” (i.e., tax cuts). That particular debt is supposed to pay for itself, right? Yet here we are. 

Of course, a revenue source apparently escaping the senator’s notice is at work in the form of the president’s sweeping, on-again/off-again tariffs, which were just declared illegal by a federal judge because Congress is assigned that power by the Constitution. (Apparently this judge, we will be told, is one of those who are ideologically aligned against the “president’s mandate,” something that doesn’t exist. And this sentiment will be echoed by those in the Senate who, according to law, actually hold the power Trump is exercising.) 

The tariffs are indeed pulling in millions of dollars every day. And it’s not a tax on you or me! Not technically. But since a tariff is charged to the importer of the goods (on the American side), not the foreign shipper, guess who will ultimately be paying it? Hint: not foreigners.

Now the government needs a budget, and that will require Democrats to vote for it. But Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, referring to Trump slashing funds already appropriated by Congress via legally questionable “pocket rescissions”, said that it’s “hard to justify voting for bills that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a recent letter to colleagues, said that “Senate Republicans must decide: Stand up for the legislative branch or enable Trump’s slide toward authoritarianism.”

I agree. While a focus on numbers and debt may sound “serious” (and traditionally Republican) in print, Ms. Fischer’s message ignores other immediate emergencies facing this nation. 

I will add, Senator Fischer: remember how you felt on January 6, 2021? Many of the rest of us still feel that way. Your brief, three-sentence statement on that day was quite clear: “These rioters have no constitutional right to harm law enforcement and storm our Capitol. We are a nation of laws, not some banana republic. This must end now.”

That, too, remains true. We are indeed a nation of laws. Yet, as Ms. Fischer surely knows, one of those violent, lawless men who attacked the police on that day while yelling, “Kill ‘em!”—Jared L. Wise—is now employed by Donald Trump’s Justice Department as a “senior advisor.” 

So I offer your message back to you, Ms. Fischer, regarding this president who acts, with the blessings of his party, as a law unto himself: 

This must end now.

Submitted for publication to the Nebraska Examiner, not accepted