Congress Keeps Calling Attention to Its Weaknesses

As anyone who has ever held a job can tell you, among the scariest sentences that an employee can hear is “The boss has taken an interest in your work.” Well, the Congress of the United States, Representatives as well as Senators, should be very afraid: the voters have begun taking an interest in their work.

As the election in Massachusetts showed, this will be very bad for the Democrats, who have much more to lose. But it should be bad for all incumbents. The months-in-the-making health care bill, with partisan non-cooperation of the Republicans and the Let’s Make A Deal-like approach of the Democrats, showed no one to an advantage. The day of reckoning is coming, and if past is prologue, it will bring big changes. The 1976 post-Watergate class did much to undermine the power of the committee chairmen and the seniority system; the 1994 Contract with America brought big reforms as well.

In the unlikely event that Congress wanted to try to placate voters, enacting some preemptive reforms might be a successful appraoch. One reform that could be popular would be to change Senate rules and end the 60% super majority that is necessary to terminate debate in the Senate. This is the so-called filibuster provision, but of course, no actual filibuster is involved. We all know that the Senate is a classic upper chamber, designed to be more reflective, the so-called saucer where the passions fo the moment that get expressed in the House can cool, and where minority rights are protected. And that’s fine, even though historically, the minority whose rights tend to get protected consists of the rich and powerful. But the Senate is an anachronistic institution, created in the 18th century to represent states when the national government was weaker and states had a far more significant role in government and regional identities and interests were more pronounced. It is the only elected body in the country where the principle of `one man, one vote’ does not apply, and idea that most Americans wold believe to be fundamental to our system. When that is understood, the fact that its own rules allow 40 percent of its membership, which could represent as little as 20 percent of the American people, to stymie the will of the majority, should start drawing even more attention upon its practices and prerogatives. It’s been a very long time since reformers turned a spotlight on the ways Congress does business. In this climate, this super majority rule is just the sort of thing that shouts `Bring it on!”