Inside the U.S. Capitol are statues dedicated to prominent Americans, including famed social commentator and actor Will Rogers, who once joked about Congress: “Every time they make a joke, it’s a law, and every time they pass a law, it’s a joke.”
That kind of humor still resonates with the nearly 9 in 10 Americans who say they are unhappy with Congress.
“Hating Congress is great entertainment for Americans,” said Carl Hulse, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times. “But I think Congress is very disappointed.”
Hulse has covered Capitol Hill since the Reagan administration. When asked if he sees the organization destroyed today, he replied: “Oh yes, completely. Unfortunately, I told people, “I spent my career covering the decline of Congress.” And yes, they need to get together. But there is very, very little cooperation between the parties, and you can’t make things happen that way.
“I think a lot of them want to do the right thing, but they just can’t bring themselves to do it,” he added.
The point is that Congress does have power under the Constitution. “Article I is a real thing,” Hulse said. “I think what happened with the Republicans in this Congress and the transfer of power to the administration was a real mistake on many fronts – tariffs, war powers, things that are actually listed in the Constitution. They are distributing supplies. And once you give away some power, you will never get it back.
“Republicans will probably look at this and say, ‘Well, you know, President Trump is our guy. We needed to do this.” Trust me: the next Democratic president is not going to turn around and say, “You know, it was a big mistake to allow Congress to become so weak.” We need to empower them again.” No, that won’t happen. This will go forever.”
Pointing fingers
Today, Republicans control the Senate and House of Representatives, and legislation often stalls. To date, the 119th Congress has passed fewer bills than many of its predecessors.
However, some bills have had a real impact. There was a GOP mega-bill that cut taxes by $4.5 trillion over the next decade, and the recently adopted bipartisan housing bill.
This Congress will also be remembered for the partial government shutdown over national security funding.
Still, critics on the left and right want more done, whether by increasing or cutting federal spending. And whatever his problems, President Trump has routinely bypassed Congress entirely, whether on trade or war with Iran. He’s also putting pressure on them to do his bidding, such as calling last week to overhaul federal voting rules.
These are particularly turbulent times in the Senate. Former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was hospitalized for several weeks, and the South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham died suddenly this month.
For Hulse, the turmoil underscores how Congress is struggling with age and an increasingly bleak political climate—worse, he said, than when he first came to Capitol Hill four decades ago: “Congress was different in 1985,” he said. “Many are World War II veterans who have already experienced a lot in life. So it wasn’t something big or difficult for them. They were trying to do the right thing.
“And now both parties are much closer to the president. It’s difficult to achieve the goal.
Who’s to blame? Both sides blame each other for the chaos. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) said, “Well, Republicans don’t control the House; There’s chaos here.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Kathy Britt (R-Ala.) said, “Unfortunately, Democrats have chosen to play politics and put politics before the people over and over again under this administration.” Senator Chris Coons (D) told us, “You have the loudest voice in the room, Trump, fighting against his own Congress.”
“People should be angry”
Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the legislature is “struggling,” and Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, describes Congress as “marginalized”—partly the result of empowering the president.
Asked whether she thought Congress was broken or weakened, Binder said: “Well, of course it’s both. Diminished, of course, in the sense that he has enormous powers under the Constitution: the power of the purse, the power to declare war. And yet, often, not only under Trump, the current president, but also decades ago, Congress cedes these powers to the president.
“So muscle memory of how to make deals, how to pass laws, how to solve problems? The muscles are there, but they have really atrophied,” Binder said.
“What has changed for me is how the participants themselves see their work,” Wallach said. “I think we’ve lost the sense of I was sent here to solve the problems of the American people. I have to find a way to do this. This means building coalitions. This means compromise. “Compromise” has become too much of a dirty word in American politics today. There is a feeling that if you are willing to compromise, you are not really sticking to your values.
“People today see their job as supporting the White House when it is their ally, or fighting it in various ways when the president is the other party. This where the real action is in the executive branch (and) in the judicial branch.”
During his current term, President Trump has issued a number of executive orders—more than 260 so far. Two presidents before him have issued scores of their own, leaving many Americans wondering: What is Congress doing?
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Is society being too harsh on Congress? “I think the truth is that Congress doesn’t have to be a very popular organization, even if it does a good job,” Wallach said. “The old line about lawmaking and sausage production exists for a reason. There is something unseemly about the way legislative policy should be conducted that prevents Congress from being truly popular.”
“I think the public needs to be tough on Congress,” Binder said. “The national debt is $30 trillion; Social Security looks set to be on the brink if it doesn’t act soon on a range of issues and problems we see all around us. Cost of housing? People? must go crazy.
“At the same time, the public often has completely unreasonable expectations about what is possible. You need a big, broad bipartisan majority to get things done,” she said. “And in a polarized America where there are factions in each party, it’s really difficult.”
According to Binder and Wallach, today’s Congress may be troubled, but it is, as always, a reflection of its times—and the people it represents.
Looking to the future, do they have hope for Congress?
“I’m an eternal optimist, but I don’t have much hope for Congress,” Binder said. “I think the problems and the roots of the problems that we are talking about will be with us for a long time. And whenever Congress has difficulty solving problems, they push them into the future. And that just means the problems are going to get more complicated.”
“I will say that having a very forward-looking view of Congress makes me a little more hopeful,” Wallach said. “For two centuries, Congress has looked at things differently. Members found ways to reform the institution to make it operate completely differently. And so I think at some point we will turn the corner. Congress has the power to be reborn, to be at the center of events again. And I expect that someday he will be able to do it.”
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The story was produced by Robbin McFadden and Reed Orvedal. Editor: Jason Schmidt.