Via CalPundit/Washington Monthly comes a very detailed report in the Boston Globe of how the legislative process in Washington is collapsing:
With one party controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, and having little fear of retaliation by the opposing party, the House leadership is changing the way laws are made in America, favoring secrecy and speed over open debate and negotiation. Longstanding rules and practices are ignored. Committees more often meet in secret. Members are less able to make changes to legislation on the House floor. Bills come up for votes so quickly that elected officials frequently don't know what's in them. And there is less time to discuss proposed laws before they come up for a vote.
I realize that bashing Congress is somewhat of a national sport, but they really are one of those checks and balances that were intended to be used in the constitution. I'm not going to bash the Republicans for this (the story does that enough), but instead bash all of Congress: it's bad for the country when Congress rolls over for the President. It's their job to deliberate and propose laws to make the country better. It's their job to re-visit executive agencies to check how their legislation is being implemented. It's their job to question the executive branch about what policies they are following and both the process and goals of that agency. I don't care if the Democrats or the Republicans are in charge, just so long as Congress has leadership. This isn't to say that Congress should always oppose the Executive, just that it is supposed to cast light on their actions to further political debate. Public debate, by the way, can be thought of as a market solution: let a bunch of ideas fight it out in the public sphere, and the "best" will be more readily accepted and adopted. Republicans are supposed to like market solutions. Of course, if the GOP really has no interest in public debate or letting Congress have anything resembling a spine, then you get a result that looks a lot like what the Boston Globe writes about...
Posted by baltar at October 5, 2004 09:01 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics