1950s Control Tactics Can’t Manage Today’s Freewheeling Senators

Healthy institutions require effective leadership. This is evident in the dysfunction surrounding the health-care debate in the Senate today.

Legislative leadership is difficult because legislators are notoriously hard to lead. This makes sense for the Senate, where the majority leader’s job has been described as “herding cats.” Nevertheless, some Senate leaders have been more effective than others.

This suggests legislative leadership is a craft. That is, it can be done well or poorly. Mastering it depends on correctly identifying the challenges and opportunities inherent in the Senate’s environment. It requires acknowledging that a leadership style that works in one environment may not work in another.

This is an important lesson for the Senate’s current leaders. How they practice their craft bears directly on how the Senate makes decisions. And the deterioration in the institution’s decision-making process has been a major driver of its current dysfunction.

James WallnerJune 27, 2017Senate, Leadership, Legislative Process

Why the GOP is struggling to repeal Obamacare

It's almost July and the Republican Party has yet to repeal Obamacare due to divisions within its own ranks. Everything that we thought we knew about the GOP suggests that this should not be the case.

What explains this sudden change in the policy views of Republicans? One explanation is that party affiliation is not as important as previously thought in explaining member behavior once in office. But far from suggesting that parties don't matter, the GOP's present struggles demonstrate that parties matter in a different way. Obamacare's fate ultimately depends on how Republicans view their party.

James WallnerJune 20, 2017Republicans, Obamacare

Congress needs to rethink how it makes a budget

Congress has a problem. The federal budget is a mess, and its members have yet to demonstrate the willingness to fix it.

This is a problem because it's their job to budget.

Budgeting requires trade-offs between appropriate levels of taxes and spending. It also forces members to prioritize some programs over others. Doing so is controversial. Some people will be unhappy with the decisions their elected representatives make.

And therein lies the problem.

James WallnerJune 15, 2017Congress, Budget

How Senate Republicans can break Democratic obstruction

One big reason why the Senate is gridlocked today is that Republicans have yet to put in the kind of effort required to break the Democrats' obstruction.

Republicans should want the Senate to work. After all, the party retained its majority in the chamber after last November's elections and the GOP also controls the House of Representatives and the presidency for only the fourth time since the end of World War II.

Given this fact, it would be reasonable to assume that the Senate would be raring to go. Instead, the institution looks to be barely moving.

James WallnerJune 8, 2017Senate, Politics of Effort, Obstruction, Leadership

Constitutional Restoration: A DIY Project

Regardless of where people are on the political spectrum, many Americans—in fact most—believe that something is gravely wrong with the political system today. According to a recent report from Pew Research Center, 55 percent of Americans are frustrated with the federal government. Similarly, popular trust in government is near historic lows. The Pew survey found that only 16 percent of Americans trust the government to do the right thing “most of the time.” A paltry 4 percent of respondents reported trusting the government to do the right thing “just about always.”

James WallnerJune 2, 2017Constitution, Congress, Separation of Powers

Sorry President Trump: Abolishing the filibuster will not Make America Great Again

President Trump's recent call to abolish the Senate filibuster is misguided and should be ignored.

While his frustration is understandable given the lack of progress Congress has made on reforming healthcare and taxes, heeding the president's call will not move these two important initiatives any closer to becoming law. Instead, it will only make the Senate's current dysfunction worse.

James WallnerMay 31, 2017Senate, Presidency, Filibuster

Ditching the Filibuster Won’t Save the Senate

The Senate is broken, but eliminating the filibuster is only likely to exacerbate the underlying causes of the institution’s dysfunction.

This is not the conventional wisdom, of course, which maintains that it’s excessive minority obstruction that makes the Senate unable to pass important legislation. Proponents of this view point to the gridlock that results from the filibuster. And behind it they see ideological and partisan polarization, geographic sorting of the electorate, and the prevalence of special interest money in campaigns.

There is some truth in this diagnosis, for the Senate does suffer from an inability to overcome partisan conflict between its members and thus to clear legislation. In the name of ending gridlock, some would fix the Senate by empowering the majority to pass its agenda by ending the minority’s ability to filibuster. Yet while this might well improve the Senate’s legislative productivity, it would do so by undermining the institution’s ability to perform the other role for which it was created.

James WallnerMay 26, 2017Senate, Legislative Process, Institutional Design, Filibuster

Think tanks and the future of politics

This is a pivotal moment.

The future of American politics is up for grabs.

The challenges facing the country today are great. The decisions made over the next four to six years could determine the course of our politics for the next generation.

And despite recent reports, think tanks, or public policy research organizations, will play an important role in charting this course.

James WallnerMay 9, 2017Think Tanks