What’s wrong with Congress?
What s wrong with Congress: A Deep Dive into Legislative Challenges
bizeconanalysis.com – What s wrong with Congress? Inside the U.S. Capitol, statues memorialize distinguished Americans, including famed social commentator and actor Will Rogers, who once quipped about Congress, “Every time they make a joke, it’s a law, and every time they make a law, it’s a joke.” Humor like that still rings true to the nearly 9 in 10 Americans who say they’re unhappy with Congress. “It’s a great American pastime to hate Congress,” said Carl Hulse, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times.
“But I do think there’s a lot of frustration with Congress.”
Hulse has covered Capitol Hill since the Reagan administration. Asked if he sees a broken institution today, he replied, “Oh yes, totally. I unfortunately have said to people, ‘I’ve spent my career covering the decline of Congress.’ And yeah, they need to get it together. But there’s just very, very little cooperation between the parties, and you can’t make things happen that way.” I do think a lot of them want to do the right thing, and they just can’t quite get themselves there to do it, he added.
The Constitutional Power Gap
The fact is, under the Constitution, Congress really does have power. “Article I is a real thing,” said Hulse. “I think what’s happened with the Republicans in this Congress, and ceding power to the administration, has been a real mistake on a lot of fronts – tariffs, war powers, the things that are actually enumerated in the Constitution. They’re giving away the store. And once you give away some power, you never get it back.” The Republicans might be looking at this and going, ‘Well, you know, this is President Trump, our guy. We needed to do that.’ Trust me: the next Democratic president isn’t going to turn around and say, ‘You know, that was a big mistake letting Congress get so weak. We need to empower them again.’ No, it’s not gonna happen. It goes for good.”
Gridlock and Leadership Changes
Pointing fingers, these days Republicans control the Senate and the House, and legislation often faces gridlock. So far, the 119th Congress has passed fewer bills than many of its predecessors. Some bills, though, have had real impact. There was the GOP mega-bill that will cut taxes by $4.5 trillion over the next decade, and a recently-passed bipartisan housing bill. This Congress also will be remembered for the partial government shutdown over funds for homeland security. Still, critics left and right want more to be done, be it raising, or cutting, federal spending.
And whatever its problems, Congress has been routinely bypassed altogether by President Trump, whether on trade or the war with Iran. He also pressures them to do his bidding, like urging an overhaul of federal voting rules this past week. This is an especially uncertain time in the Senate. Former majority leader Mitch McConnell has been hospitalized for weeks, and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham died suddenly this month.
“1985, Congress was different,” Hulse reflected. “Lot of World War II vets who had already experienced a lot of life. So, this was not, you know, a big, difficult thing for them. They were trying to do the right thing.”
And now it’s both parties, much more aligned with the President. Hard to get things done. Margins are tight. The districts are really gerrymandered. There’s a lot wrong with Congress.
Who Bears Responsibility?
Who is to blame? Both parties point the finger at the other for the mess. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said, “Well, the Republicans don’t control the House; the place is chaos.” Meanwhile, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said, “Unfortunately, Democrats have chosen to play politics and put that over people time and time again under this administration.” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told us, “You’ve got the biggest voice in the room, Trump, fighting against his own Congress.” “People should be mad.”
Sarah Binder, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says that the legislative branch is “struggling,” while Philip Wallach, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, describes Congress as “marginalized” – the result, in part, of an empowered president. Asked whether she believes Congress is broken or diminished, Binder replied, “Well, both, for sure. Certainly diminished in the sense that it has enormous authority under the Constitution: Power of the purse, power to declare war. And yet, oftentimes, not just under Trump, this current president, but reaching back decades, Congress cedes that authority to the president. All the authority on the table, but struggling to try to use it.”