The Great American Transfer of Power
Congress has been deferring more and more of its power to the president.
Bubba
14 Feb
The Great American Transfer of Power
President Trump’s transformation of the government through a flurry of executive orders continues a longstanding trend of executive power expansion—while Congress sits idly by. (NYT)
The conversation: In an interview with Ezra Klein, conservative thinker Yuval Levin argued that congressional Republicans have shifted from making laws to making viral moments, often letting Trump take the lead.
Klein said Republican congressmen “don't seem to want much authority in this presidency” and “seem to understand their role as blocking and tackling for Donald Trump, not being empowered by him.”
Levin suggested current political incentives had a lot do with it, as lawmakers increasingly defined their success by their “social media following” and less by their body of legislative accomplishments.
Levin:
You're not trying to look good on the national news so much as to look good to the particular social media influencer that your most devoted primary voters follow. And that's created a set of incentives that is distant from legislative work. And it's left a lot of members with a sense that investing themselves in their committee work is a waste of time.
The numbers: Per a new American Enterprise Institute analysis, the 118th Congress passed only 274 laws, the lowest number since the Civil War.
82.6% of all laws passed were concentrated in just 10 major bills, rather than a steady flow of smaller, more manageable laws.
Chart: American Enterprise Institute
More: DOGE’s new website, which tracks the ratio of laws passed by Congress versus regulations created by the bureaucracy, quantifies just how much power has shifted from the legislative to the executive branch.
For instance in 2024, 18.45 rules were created for every law passed by Congress.
Zoom in: You can point to a number of examples to illustrate how Congress has become more about political theater than governing, including Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s recent bill proposing putting Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore.
In 2021, Democratic Rep. Cori Bush slept overnight at the steps of the Capitol to protest an expiring eviction moratorium.
Just two years earlier, Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, brought a picture of Ronald Reagan riding a dinosaur with him while he delivered an anti-Green New Deal speech on the senate floor.
Zoom out: Trump is just the latest president to oversee a steady shift of power toward the executive, frequently leaving Congress sidelined.
George W. Bush: After 9/11, Congress passed the 2001 AUMF, allowing the executive to approve military actions without a formal war declaration from Congress.
Barack Obama: In 2012, Obama launched DACA via executive action, shielding certain undocumented immigrants from deportation without congressional approval.
Joe Biden: In 2021, Biden ordered Syria airstrikes without Congress’s consent, continuing the trend of unilateral executive action.
The vibes: Amid growing dissatisfaction with U.S. political leadership, there are signs voters are increasingly open to a stronger executive who can sidestep governmental norms.
A solid share of Americans, including nearly half of Republicans, say the U.S. needs a president who operates “without much interference from courts or Congress,” according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll from last year.
Meanwhile, a 2023 Open Society Foundations study found more than 1 in 3 young people favor a “strong leader who does away with legislatures and elections.”
Bubba’s Two Cents
Back in 2018, then-Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska delivered a scathing critique of Congress’ dysfunction, saying: “The legislature is weak, and most people here in Congress want their jobs more than they want to do legislative work.” That hasn’t changed. The result? A dismal 17% approval rating.
So what’s the fix? Honestly, I don’t have a perfect answer.
Term limits get thrown around as a solution, but the truth is, plenty of politicians would just pivot to their next gig—whether as a talking head on Fox or MSNBC or as a well-paid operative in the political ecosystem.
One development that does offer some hope is the slow collapse of the current campaign fundraising model. Politicians have pushed relentless fundraising tactics to the brink, bombarding people with texts and emails packed with apocalyptic rhetoric and over-the-top requests. For years, this has worked—an 80-year-old might still be convinced to send $20 a month to Lauren Boebert because of some fear-driven promise—but younger generations are growing more skeptical.
Fundraising is evolving the same way media did. In 2014, cheap clickbait ruled. By 2020, the companies that built their strategy around it were collapsing. The same fate awaits politicians who depend on unsustainable, exploitative fundraising, and that should in theory usher in a new generation of politicians that are hopefully different.
As the old saying goes, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time—but not forever.
Did you like an item in today’s edition?
Forward it to a friend
Screenshot an item and text it to them
Direct your friend to https://www.bubba.news/