Where’s Mr. Sam when we need him?
I wish I had something wise to impart about immigration reform, and the fact that we’re apparently not going to have any. I’ve got nothing for you — except the lingering feeling that one of our branches of government seems to be approaching total non-functionality.
Immigration reform, like Social Security reform, apparently has become unsolvable. Sure, both of them present tough, knotty problems. But watching Congress make an utter hash of those two issues multiple times is enough to make you think back to your high-school civics class with sardonic amusement. Boy, the things you believe when you’re young.
Was it always like this? Yeah, probably. But that’s the point: Aren’t we supposed to get better and smarter as we get older? Can’t a nation develop a collective wisdom with age just as an individual can?
This is not a partisan rant, although I think the people in charge of Congress now are particularly clownish. (Remember David Broder’s evisceration of Senate top gun Harry Reid a few months ago?) Instead, this is a note of alarm. A smart, focused, functioning Congress is an important balance to presidencies that otherwise naturally default to domestic imperialism. More important, an effective Congress is the single greatest antidote to the unhappy modern trend of courts setting national policy.
It won’t take much to reverse the current sorry state of things. A Sam Rayburn here, an Everett Dirksen there, and things can get back on track pretty quick.
But my suspicion is that we won’t see the likes of them again. Can you imagine, for instance, “Mr. Sam” yukking it up with Michael Moore, holding fundraisers with the Hollywood crowd or having lobbyists lined up outside his door? Rayburn — probably the most effective Speaker of the House in history — was beholden to nobody, which is why he died in 1961 with a total net worth of $15,000. Even after adjusting for inflation, that’s only something in the neighborhood of $100,000 today.
You show me a guy who leaves Congress after a half-century of service with a net worth of less than 100K, and I’ll show you somebody who had more important things to do than make money and curry favor.
Solving knotty issues, for instance.