Lee Hamilton has wisdom to share with current members of Congress. That wisdom could help Congress and average Americans.
But don’t look for our politicians to take his advice. They’ve built a system that’s tilted against it.
Hamilton knows a thing or two about the institution. He represented Indiana’s 9th Congressional District from 1965 to 1999. He became a respected statesman, particularly in the area of foreign policy. He co-chaired the bipartisan 9/11 commission that investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In his “retirement,” he directs the Center on Congress at Indiana University.
Last week he spoke to the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce during its annual federal focus luncheon.
Congress, he said, is “weak and timid.”
Congress, he said, has given too much of its power away. The Office of Fiscal Management does the real budgeting. The president decides when and where to deploy troops. The U.S. Supreme Court makes the major policy decisions.
Congress, he said, lurches “from doomsday moment to doomsday moment,” dragging the nation along with it.
And its members seem incapable of reforming the institution. “I don’t see skillful politicians,” he said. “I see a lot of guys and gals who can give a good speech.”
Why has Congress slid into this mess?
Members of Congress can’t compromise, he said. And because they can’t compromise, the system cannot work.
This is not a new theme for Hamilton. During a speech in Indiana many years ago, he pointed with some frustration to politicians who love to pound on a podium and never give in about this or that issue. The Founding Fathers, he said, were people of principle, but they also understood the need for persuasion. Pounding on the podium might attract the TV cameras, but it takes a majority vote to make policy.
Congress was set up to follow a process. Bills would be created, debated by committees, debated by the full chamber, then voted upon. Each member of Congress could play a role. Now, he said, “mega bills” that contain all manner of issues are cobbled together at the last minute — witness deals to raise the debt ceiling or avoid government shutdowns — and it’s impossible for the average member to understand what he’s voting for. “This invites all kinds of under the table deals, cuts the ordinary member out of the process and shields Congress from public scrutiny,” Hamilton said.
The system outside Congress does not help those within it. People at either extreme tend to get the funding and the exposure on cable television and the Internet in our scorched-earth, winner-take-all political environment. Many potential politicians — and voters — simply stay away.
But Hamilton is a positive thinker, and he says there is hope.
“Self-government is a monumental achievement,” he said. “It is one of the greatest achievements of all time.”
We agree with the observation. But making our system work requires listening to all sides of an issue. It requires honest exchanges. It requires putting personal views aside for the benefit of the nation.
Nothing in our current system encourages such behavior.
Sadly, we can’t share Hamilton’s hope for a better Congress anytime soon.