The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
At 96, James Buckley still is, like good cheddar, sharp and savory. Buckley, whose life has been no less accomplished than his brother Bill’s, recently said at a National Review gathering that his speech there would be his last public appearance. Let us hope not.
He adorned all the government’s branches — senator; undersecretary of state for international security affairs; judge on the nation’s second-most important court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Shortly after his 1970 election to the Senate (as a member of New York’s Conservative Party; the age of miracles had not yet passed) he was handed a study showing that “the work of the average congressional office had doubled every five years since 1936.” He explains:
“Given the fact that, in simpler times, Congress worked at a leisurely pace … its members could take the initial increases in stride simply by devoting more hours per day and more months per year to their work. Over time, however, the available hours and months had been exhausted, and the doubling could only be accommodated by squeezing deliberation out of the legislative process.”
In 1934, after 145 years of congressional activity, the U.S. Code consisted of one volume of federal statutes. Buckley says when he came to Congress 36 years later, there were 11 volumes. Today, 49 more years on, there are 41 volumes — supplemented by 242 volumes of regulations having the force of law.
Pulling states’ purse strings
Buckley says that the mischief erupted after a 1937 Supreme Court ruling that Congress, in promoting the “general welfare,” can supply states with money to implement programs that Congress has no enumerated power to write into law. When Buckley entered the Senate, such programs distributed $24 billion. Today, he says, the sum, properly computed, is in the “mid-$700 billions.”
Buckley has proposed converting such programs into block grants to states. He now proposes a presidential tweet vowing to veto “any bill that tells the states how to run their own affairs.” He believes “there is a chance,” the Supreme Court might reverse its 1937 ruling on the ground that grants to states “have proven to be inherently coercive.” These proposals are equally sensible, and — the age of miracles has now passed — equally unlikely.
The problem, as Yuval Levin says, is Congress’ “willful underactivity.” But the growing problem that will continue to exacerbate this problem is this: Having marginalized itself, with judicial encouragement, Congress now attracts members who either disdain it or think members of the president’s party exist to tug their forelock when the president issues orders.
An omnipresent, micromanaging federal government will necessarily be presidential government, with the chief executive’s discretion unbound, and unsupervised by a Congress that manages to be both harried and lethargic. Many progressives have long understood this — and have approved of it because they thought Woodrow Wilson and the two Roosevelts would be the sort of presidents who would benefit from it. But because of the 45th president, progressives are having second thoughts. They should consider Buckley’s thoughts.
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