Happy New Year! Here’s to a better 2023.
I agree with Townhall’s Derek Hunter that 2022 Sucked. The year 2022 was devastating for taxpayers thanks to a progressive spending spree that did nothing to combat inflation. The American people would love to see politicians make some New Year’s Resolutions to dial back the dysfunction we see everyday coming from the House and Senate. Would be great if Congress could suck a bit less in 2023.
Four easy resolutions for the House and Senate would be to combat inflation, balance the budget, run Congress competently and leave the American people alone. Inflation was largely ignored other than the Biden Administration slapping a bill with the name the “Inflation Reduction Act,” to a bill that did nothing to reduce inflation. Not only did Congress not even consider any measure to balance the budget - they found new ways to spend borrowed cash and racked up another $1.4 trillion in new debt. Congressional leaders stalled until the last minutes of this Congress to pass a massive omnibus spending bill that gave members (and the American people) little time to understand the impact of the spending in the bill.
Conservatives need to stop focusing on the Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) quest to become Speaker of the House as that big of a deal. Whether you get McCarty or Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), nothing will change without a change in the rules of the House. Rules changes are far more important than the shiny object of the rebellion against Kevin McCarthy.
If the House wants to make a resolution that will help to repair the broken trust of the American people and Congress, they need to change the rules to allow for more debate, amendment, and compromise. I expect that if Rep. McCarthy pledged to reform the rules, his problems would go away. The members are making the fight over McCarthy a proxy vote on rules reform, yet the longer McCarthy resists rules changes – the fight will become more about McCarthy.
A rule that mandates all bills be subject to amendment, that is unwaivable by the House Rules Committee, would be a good start. Many are demanding a rule that will allow one member to trigger a recall vote of the Speaker of the House. This is the nuclear option when it comes to restoring the power of rank-and-file members and it is not necessary. A better line in the sand for conservatives is to say they want to elect their own chair of committees and a hard and fast rule that they will be allowed to offer amendments on the floor of the House. Restoring the power of individual members will disperse power in a way that will make the daily activities of the Speaker less relevant.
The Senate might want to take note of this possible change in House rules. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) should pledge to stop using the parliamentary tactic of “filling the amendment tree” that serves to block amendments by rank-and-file members. The leaders of both parties have adopted this tactic and it needs to be retired. This tactic is an abuse of the rules and sidelines most members from the process. I surmise that if Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) had been allowed to participate more fully in the legislative process, she would still be a Democrat. The Senate has become so partisan, because of the leadership using tactics that sideline the input of most members. The idea by Democrats to abolish the legislative filibuster would make things even worse, because the filibuster is the last recourse for members to leverage extended debate and the offering of amendments.
The most important reform needed in Congress is to establish a mechanism for balancing the budget. The Washington Examiner reported on December 28, 2022, “lawmakers on Capitol Hill are gearing up for a political showdown over raising the country’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit this coming spring or summer after punting the issue to a new Congress.” That showdown will be the one opportunity for liberty minded Senators to filibuster any bill that raises the debt limit without structural reforms to spending programs. Let the Democrats gaslight the American people and claim that Republicans want to end Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The fact is that these programs will end without significant reforms because there will be no money to fund these mandatory expenditures if the federal government goes bankrupt. Sane Senators need to pledge on day one of the new Congress to block a debt limit without reforms resembling Cut, Cap, and Balance from 2011. Balancing the budget should be conservative New Year’s Resolution number 1.
It is amazing to me that leaders in the House and Senate ignore the fact that they are wildly unpopular and that has led to people having no respect for Congress. Now is the time for optimism that leaders in 2023 will fix the rules of the House and Senate to disperse power to rank-and-file members while using the debt limit to impose some fiscal discipline on the federal government.
Brian Darling is former Counsel to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
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