Thread by @BStraessle, The subtext running just below the surface here is that the U.S. [...]

The subtext running just below the surface here is that the U.S. House of Representatives – and Congress in general – is a horribly broken institution.

(Thread) https://thedispatch.com/p/democrats-congress-pelosi-ocasio-cortez

Democrats Grapple With Slim House Majority

And it could be a battlefield for the larger war over the direction of the Democratic party.

https://thedispatch.com/p/democrats-congress-pelosi-ocasio-cortez

99% of House members don't really legislate. You're not allowed to! In the majority, your job is to dial for $$ and rubber stamp bills written in the Speaker's office. The only difference in the minority is you vote Nay instead of Yea.

Also true of the Senate, to a lesser extent

For the big stuff, there is no deliberative process where bills go through committees and everybody gets to have their say. If you want to alter a major bill in the House, you'd better have enough votes to tank it altogether.

House members do get one last chance to amend a bill with something called the "motion to recommit." Today, it's almost exclusively used by the minority to force a vote on things the majority would rather not talk about.

But hey, at least somebody gets to offer an amendment! Oh wait...

That's right, folks. The solution here is *obviously* to concentrate even more power in one person's hands.

Just how broken is the House? The next Congress hasn't even started, and the people with *the most* power to legislate have already thrown in the towel!

The House is *supposed to* have more power to set the federal budget than anyone else. Yet the head of the Budget Committee probably won't bother.

Even if he did, @byrdinator would see it as "little more than" a press release. Given how things work in practice, she's not wrong!

Congress almost never passes a "budget," which in theory is a general outline for the "appropriations" bills that actually set spending levels in practice.

But guess what? Lawmakers rarely pass those either!

(chart from https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/its-not-news-congresss-budget-process-wreck-it-should-be)

Everyone in DC knows Congress is broken – its members most of all. You just rarely see a piece that's not *expressly about* Congress being broken that makes the case so well.

So, props to @byrdinator and @thedispatch.

To be clear, this is a bipartisan problem. And most members of Congress don't like it either! The House even created @ModernizeCmte to come up with a plan to fix things. https://modernizecongress.house.gov/imo/media/doc/ModernizationCommittee_10152020r1Compressed%20(newest%20gpo%20report).pdf

I'm sure there are parts of that

plan I wouldn't like, but I'd rather they implement every single bit of it today than continue down the current path.

Modern presidents have far too much power. That won't change unless Congress gets its act together. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congress-needs-to-curb-presidential-power-heres-how-it-can-start-to/2020/12/15/ffde4c32-3f12-11eb-9453-fc36ba051781_story.html

Opinion | Congress needs to curb presidential power. Here’s how it can start to.

The first branch of government has made itself irrelevant, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congress-needs-to-curb-presidential-power-heres-how-it-can-start-to/2020/12/15/ffde4c32-3f12-11eb-9453-fc36ba051781_story.html

Don't expect Pelosi or McConnell to carry this across the finish line. If rank and file members want their time in Congress to matter, they have to do it themselves.

As @justinamash said in the story that started this rant, enough is enough. https://thedispatch.com/p/democrats-congress-pelosi-ocasio-cortez

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