President Biden is already loading up on the executive orders to push forward his agenda. The centralization of power to the presidency has been noted for years, but we are also being reminded of why it is happening: We don’t have a serious Congress.
Republicans highlighted this recently with their election objections, feeding into the fantasy that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, viewing their Senate seats as little more than a springboard to higher office, were the high-profile leaders of the push.
They were joined by 140 House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise. The Republican House caucus has decided to turn its strong 2020 election performance into Trump fanaticism. While McCarthy urged members not to attack one another publicly, media-minded “legislator” Rep. Matt Gaetz was in Wyoming trying to get a member of McCarthy’s leadership team voted out of Congress.
It isn’t much different for Democrats. After finally earning the label of Senate majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer wants Biden to bypass his chamber entirely. “He can do many, many things under the emergency powers … that he could do without legislation,” Schumer said, encouraging Biden to pursue climate change policy unilaterally.
This is, of course, the exact opposite view Schumer held in 2019 when Trump used emergency powers for a border wall after Congress considered and rejected his funding request. Most Republicans have lost their ground to complain about Biden’s overreach and Schumer’s hypocrisy, given that they went along with Trump’s emergency declaration.
From Republicans such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, to Democrats such as Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the most prominent members of Congress are those who chase media appearances and controversy. It’s far easier to play for the cameras than to take tough votes, which is why both parties are just fine outsourcing their jobs to the presidency.
Yes, Biden is a hypocrite, after saying in October that you can’t legislate by executive order “unless you’re a dictator.” But he’s capitalizing on a permission structure that Congress has created for years. Much like Democrats during Barack Obama’s presidency, congressional Republicans failed to take a stand for the legislature under Trump. Congress’ capitulation of its own authority is only going to continue to devolve under Biden unless members of Congress start finding some dignity in their work again.
