With a shot across the White House lawn, Mitt Romney announced his arrival in the Senate. Amid applause for Romney’s op-ed from the same Beltway press types who spent 2012 painting him as an evil, striped-pants plutocrat and misogynistic cold warrior, there were some tut-tuts daring Romney to bolster his harsh words for President Trump with serious deeds.
It’s obvious what the media really want Romney to do, and that is to vote like a liberal. If you really think Trump isn’t presidential, they imply, you should oppose lower corporate rates, oppose border security, and reject conservative nominees to federal agencies and courts. This is standard disingenuous nonsense from swampy scribblers who just six years ago were accusing Romney of evading taxes and binding women, or something.
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But the new junior senator from Utah really can and should follow his words with actions. He should be the sort of senator who uses his seat for the purposes of serious legislating and oversight. If Romney and his Republican colleagues want to be men of action, want to be conservatives, and want to be statesmen, there’s plenty the Senate can do in the name of good government under our unusual president.
They could pass bills and conduct oversight that limit the executive to its proper powers. They could also fulfill Congress’ duty to oversee and advise the president and his officials.
Start by making it harder for Trump to raise taxes unilaterally. Trump has abused Section 302 “national security” tariffs more than his predecessors. His tariffs are obviously not about defending the nation from actual threats, but are heavy-handed industrial planning.
If the president wants to protect the steel industry from foreign competition, he should convince Congress to pass a law to do so. He shouldn’t have the power to impose tariffs by himself.
A bill already exists to prevent unilateral action by the president. It was sponsored last Congress by Sens. Bob Corker and Pat Toomey, and it should be voted on and passed now.
Congress should also take back its authority over war. The legislature long ago ceded this power to the executive, and one result has been endless involvement in hostilities in such places as Libya and Syria. If you want to check Trump, start with his most fearsome power, the war power.
Romney can also check Trump’s worst leanings by blocking any unqualified or cronyistic nominees. Most of Trump’s judicial and executive picks have been good, but some bad ones have gotten through thanks to GOP deference to the president. One senator can slow a nominee, and four Republican senators can probably kill one. Do this to one or two subpar picks and the president will have to improve his quality control.
For current bureaucrats and appointees, Congress has the even more fundamental tool of oversight. In the federal government, Congress is the boss. The executive is supposed to do simply what Congress has told it to do. Congress controls the purse strings. Regular hearings and basic investigations to ensure our agencies are doing what they’re supposed to and not wasting money are mostly forgotten aspects of Congress’ job. Romney and his friends can ensure that they are remembered.
Congress can make sure our border forces are aggressive and effective, yet also humane. Congress can look to see if our regulators are neither going rogue nor getting captured by the interests they are supposed to regulate. Oversight needn’t be partisan or ideological.
Romney could also join Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on a couple of her ethics proposals: Pass a bill that would place lifetime lobbying curbs on cabinet members and would extend conflict-of-interest laws to the president and vice president.
On that score, a conservative interested in good government would welcome or even initiate a congressional investigation into links between Trump’s business ventures and his administration policies. Is there any evidence of favoritism or cronyism? Are there conflicts of interest?
This is a perfect area for congressional investigation because plenty of what could be going on with, say, a Trump hotel in the Philippines might be perfectly legal while still inappropriate. Conservatives still believe there is a difference between unethical and illegal.
Any of these actions would check Trump without being partisan #Resistance theater. They would also have the happy effect, after Trump is gone in two or six years, of restoring constitutional order to a place where it has not been since long before 2016.
