by Uche Onyebadi

As I began to write this piece, Americans were feverishly expecting the giant clash of football titans in Arizona. It was the 49th SuperBowl competition, the ultimate forum to determine the true champions of American football. Two teams, the Seattle Seahawks (my favourite and defending champions) were about to slug it out with the New England Patriots, a team that has been dogged with controversy over tampering with the footballs they used in the knockout match that earned them a place in the SuperBowl.

Unlike the SuperBowl, the frenzy over the political competition that flares up in Washington D.C. apparently has no end. Each time you thought the tug-of-war between the White House and the U.S. Congress was losing traction, there comes something, some issue that would make the volcano of power show erupt once again. In the past week, the U.S. passed the controversial bill to legalize the Keystone XL (oil) Pipeline Project that President Obama has publicly pledged to veto if it landed on his table in the Oval Office at the White House. The bill passed, courtesy of the new majority enjoyed by the Republicans in the Senate. The House of Representatives had also used its Republican majority to pass the bill in 2014.

Controversial bill

 Even before the passage of the controversial bill by the Senate, House Speaker John Boehner literally poked his “power” finger into President Obama’s eyes by surreptitiously sending an invitation to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the U.S. and address the joint session of the U.S. Congress. Knowing that his invitation did not respect the normal protocols involved before such invitation was sent out, Prime Minister Netanyahu surprised everyone, and possibly himself, when he accepted to visit Washington D.C. His action has thus set the battleground ready for another round of power show between the Republican-controlled Congress and the White House where a Democrat is in charge as the president.

Disagreement over the construction of the Keystone XL (oil) Pipeline Project is more philosophical than a matter of economics, despite Republicans presenting it as something that will create jobs for thousands of American citizens. The fact is that it all boils down to the preservation of the environment. Republicans do not believe in the reality of climate change and the endangerment of our planet. Democrats do.

According to the Republican trump card on why the pipeline is needed, the construction of the 1,179-mile pipeline that will run from Canada to the U.S. will create 42,000 jobs in the United States. This figure is based on a report released by the U.S. State Department. But, what the Republicans do not talk about, which is also in the report by the same State Department, is that the so-called thousands of jobs will only extend for a two-year period, not even 42,000 at every point in this time frame.

Thereafter, the pipeline will only need about 50 jobs for its maintenance.

Once the traditional reconciliation of differences in the versions of the bill passed by the House of Representatives and Senate is accomplished, the bill will be sent to President Obama to sign it into law. He has already said he will not append his signature on that bill. That will amount to a veto, and his action will signal the real beginning of the power show between the president and Congress.

The forthcoming visit by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is another explosive power issue. It is made complex by the well-known fact that not much love is lost between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu. On the other hand, the U.S. considers Israel as a sister-nation state.

Extending the invitation to the Israeli prime minister without the traditional courtesy of working with the White House on the matter, is outright political and public snub and disregard for the presidency by Speaker John Boehner. While the Speaker is within his rights to extend such invitation, his office has conventionally worked with the White House on such matters. How do you invite the president of another country for an official visit without informing your president about it?

The issue is even more of an intentional public humiliation of President Obama mainly because the prime minister is coming specifically to talk about his opposition to any deal with Iran and its nuclear program. In his State of the Union address, President Obama had cautioned Congress not to pass any bill that will jeopardize the current multi-nation talk with Iran on its nuclear program. Obama has also promised to veto the Republican bill to impose more sanctions on Iran as the talks are still going on. He has also declined to meet with the Israeli prime when he comes in March. So, the battle line has also been drawn on that matter.

The Washington D.C. power show also promises to be extended to other matters, such as the Affordable Health Act (Obamacare) which Obama sees as his signature programme.

There is no doubt that this power rivalry has negative effects. But, they also show how a real democracy should work. The president is not an omnipotent being, neither should law-makers run wild with the powers granted them by the constitution. Eventually, both president and legislators will have to jaw-jaw, not war-war to settle their differences.