Nothing is more certain in life than death and taxes, but the success of a House rules vote was once a close third. This is a key procedural maneuver setting up debate on legislation in a congressional chamber where the majority party, and usually the speaker, historically has substantial control over the agenda. Revise that to “had substantial control.” Before the current Congress, a House rules vote hadn’t failed in two decades. There have been six such failures under the current Republican majority, setting a modern record. One analysis found that House Republicans had the lowest success rate on party unity votes of any majority party in more than 40 years. This describes roll calls on bills, amendments, and resolutions that break down along party lines. The only majority with a lower success rate, CQ Roll Call found, was in 1982. That’s when a bloc of mostly Southern Democrats defected to help a larger-than-usual Republican minority pass elements of President Ronald Reagan’s legislative agenda, forming a bipartisan conservative majority on some topics despite liberal Tip O’Neill maintaining his grasp on the speaker’s gavel. Republicans now hold the speakership but have a less functional conservative majority than when O’Neill tried and failed to stop the Reagan tax cuts. It is hard to imagine the current GOP majority passing anything of that caliber. From left: former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Speaker...