by Bob Barr | Nov 22, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerMany of the compliments being heaped on Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the wake of her announcement that she is stepping way from leading the Democrat Party are well-deserved, including the fact that throughout her tenure as Speaker, she maintained a high degree of intra-party discipline. Republicans should take heed as they prepare to assume the majority in the House when the 118th Congress convenes in January, but if recent history is a guide, they probably will not.The fact that Pelosi was able to keep her at-times very small majority marching in the same direction, is a testament to her skills and leadership style. Often overlooked in analyses of Pelosi’s successes in the Congress, however, is the fact that, unlike Republicans, there is broad agreement among congressional Democrats that Party and individual Member discipline is essential if the goal is to achieve meaningful results. In today’s political environment, with the American electorate and its representatives in the Congress evenly divided, both aspects of discipline are essential in order to succeed at actually legislating.Speaker-in-waiting Kevin McCarthy, with a bare-bones majority in the coming 118th Congress, already is finding this out, as the far-right Freedom Caucus and a few of the most conservative members of his caucus already are reducing his flexibility to manage not only his conference but the administration of the House generally.For example, it appears that the Republican majority intends to strip several Democrat members of their committee assignments, in retaliation for the Democrats doing this to Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2021. When the Democrats inappropriately punished Taylor Greene in this way, they broke with long-standing House tradition that each Party decides which committees...
by Bob Barr | Nov 17, 2022 | Townhall Article |
TownhallThe United States House of Representatives wields three great powers –to appropriate money, to legislate, and to conduct oversight of every function and component part of the federal government to ensure compliance with the Constitution and congressional intent.While not express, Congress’ oversight power is universally recognized as implied through the “necessary and proper clause” in Section 8 of Article I of the Constitution. It is this power that is the least understood of Congress’ powers, and which has in recent decades been the least effectively employed.In the coming 118th Congress that begins in early January 2023 with a Republican House majority, it is the oversight power that – if pursued seriously and effectively – will offer the Party the greatest opportunity to define itself in advance of the 2024 presidential election, and that will provide the key to reining in the disastrous policies of the Biden Administration. Continued Democrat control of the Senate effectively neuters the power of the Republican Party to pass legislation reflecting the Party’s conservative values. This shortcoming means as well that it will be next to impossible to attach significant limits to federal spending for the remaining two years of the Biden Administration. In the present environment, the only meaningful power remaining to Republicans is that of oversight, which can be employed regardless of what happens in the Senate. If Republicans decide to conduct oversight as a way to rehash old grudges, to wreak vengeance on the other Party, or to grab headlines, they will have squandered a major opportunity to define and advance the Party’s agenda as well as the interests of the American people . The clear results of...
by Bob Barr | Nov 15, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerAs much trouble as Republican leaders in the Congress might have accepting the brutal fact of their candidates’ poor performances in last week’s mid-term elections, “fixing” the problem will take more than post-election tinkering. Sure, there were major problems affecting the outcomes of last week’s results that were unique to this cycle – foremost among them, the quality of several Republican Senate candidates, and the barrage of early votes by Democrats – but there are far more consequential problems facing the GOP.Even accounting for such problems as candidate quality, uneven funding, and questionable polling, the failure of the Republican Party to develop and communicate a coherent and positive message to the electorate stands as a major shortcoming now and moving forward. History shows it need not be that way.In the 1994 mid-term election, the White House occupant was the widely unpopular President Bill Clinton. The House of Representatives had been under Democrat control for 40 years. The stage was set for change. To take advantage of that momentum, then-Minority Whip (and future Speaker) Newt Gingrich broke with Republican tradition, and articulated a substantive, specific, and positive message to the electorate.The 1994 Contract With America did not mention, much less attack Bill Clinton, though he was vulnerable to such charges. That would have been the politically easier course.Instead, the Contract listed ten pieces of legislation the GOP promised to bring to the floor of the House for a vote within the first 100 days of being awarded a majority. Importantly, it did not overpromise. The widely publicized document promised only what we could guarantee. It worked.By running on a program of specific, positive issues — each...
