Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, pointed at the painting of the Constitutional Convention hanging over his shoulder and surmised that the founding fathers depicted had one thought in mind: “You’re doing it wrong.”
The Tea Party senator made the comment while huddling with other congressional conservatives at the Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies, where they were launching the Article One Project. It’s a long-term effort to convince Congress to reclaim authority from executive branch bureaucrats who decide how and when to enforce laws.
Lee argued that Congress gave that power to the bureaucrats because “hard work and accountability are inconvenient,” but he pointed out that the tactic has backfired because congressional approval ratings hover around 10 percent.
To change that, Lee, along with Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and some of the House conservatives who pushed former Speaker John Boehner out of office, intend to release a series of white papers and legislative reforms designed to deprive the executive branch bureaucrats of their discretionary power. The first one will be on the budget, which has been the scene of many of the highest profile recent defeats for conservatives who have tried to stop President Obama from implementing unilateral changes to Obamacare or immigration law.
But it’s “a long, slow sell” to convince congressional lawmakers to change their habits, a GOP aide allowed. Lee tried to put a constitutional spin on the populist anger that has come to dominate the 2016 presidential cycle.
“The massive wholesale transfer of lawmaking power from Congress to the executive branch unmistakably tilts the the policymaking view, rigging the lawmaking process for the benefit of the wealthy and the well-connected at the expense of everyone else and perhaps most noticeably at the expense of America’s poor and middle class,” Lee said.
