Will Paul Ryan’s House Stand Up for Itself?

[Valin]

National Review:

Jonah Goldberg

January 20, 2016

 

According to the Constitution, the legislature is the first and most powerful branch of government. And yet, many believe — on the left and the right — that the institution has atrophied.

 

By all accounts, House speaker Paul Ryan is eager to change that. He has his work cut out for him.

 

At the Republican congressional retreat in Baltimore last week, I participated in a panel discussion about how to revive Congress’s traditional role. It was off the record, but I can certainly repeat a story I told. When my father was in the Army, he was stationed in Japan. His commanding officer, a master at maneuvering the military bureaucracy, gave him one piece of advice. “Goldberg, it’s always better to be on the committee that says, ‘This must never happen again.’”

 

In other words, it’s easier to wag a finger at mistakes than to be accountable for them. Congress has largely become a finger-wagging bystander. It’s great at expressing outrage. But when it comes to the messy work of legislating, it’s fallen down on the job.

 

(Snip)

 

The challenge for Ryan is multifaceted. He wants to restore Congress’s primacy, but to do so he must also transform the GOP into what he calls a “proposition party,” not an opposition party (which may be difficult if Obama does everything he can to invite opposition from conservatives). Both require time he may not have. Clawing back the legislative function can’t be done overnight and requires a cultural transformation of Congress itself.

 

Meanwhile, both parties’ front-runners don’t seem interested in deferring to Congress. Hillary Clinton has already said that Obama’s unilateralism hasn’t gone far enough, and vowed to go further. Donald Trump promises to just make stuff happen via his superhuman management skills.

 

We already know liberals will applaud an imperial Democratic president. I can only hope conservatives will stick with Ryan under a Republican one.