How much Americans hate Congress has become cliché. Congresss approval rating is at an all-time low, and its not hard to see why: the institution is broken. Plenty of structural forces have contributed to Congresss dysfunction: the increasing flow of money in politics, the emergence of the 24/7 cable news cycle, the increasing polarization of the electorate. But perhaps no single person bears as much responsibility as Newt Gingrich.
I spent 16 years building a majority in the House for the first time since 1954, Gingrich said during NBCs Florida GOP debate Monday night, referring to the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. Over those sixteen years of personal and partisan striving, Gingrich invented or perfected many of the things that Americans dislike most about Congress. I think I am a transformational figure, Gingrich said before the 1994 election. I am trying to effect a change so large that the people who would be hurt by the change, the liberal Democratic machine will fight it, Gingrich explained.
There is no greater pathology in todays Congress than obstructionism, from Speaker John Boehners (R-OH) refusal to raise the debt ceiling in July to Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) taking disaster relief funds for Hurricane Irene hostage.
Both parties have long used Congresss procedural rules to promote legislation they favor, but Gingrich created something new. There is the assumptionpioneered by Newt Gingrich himself, as early as the 1970sthat the minority wins when Congress accomplishes less, Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the number-two Democrat in the House, explained in a 2009 speech at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Gingrichs proposition, and maybe accurately, was that as long as our party cooperate with Democrats and get 20 or 30 percent of what we want and they get to say they solved the problem and had a bipartisan bill, theres no incentive for the American people to change leadership, Hoyer told the Washington Post after the speech. To some degree, he was proven right in 1994.
How Newt Gingrich Crippled Congress | The Nation
I spent 16 years building a majority in the House for the first time since 1954, Gingrich said during NBCs Florida GOP debate Monday night, referring to the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. Over those sixteen years of personal and partisan striving, Gingrich invented or perfected many of the things that Americans dislike most about Congress. I think I am a transformational figure, Gingrich said before the 1994 election. I am trying to effect a change so large that the people who would be hurt by the change, the liberal Democratic machine will fight it, Gingrich explained.
There is no greater pathology in todays Congress than obstructionism, from Speaker John Boehners (R-OH) refusal to raise the debt ceiling in July to Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) taking disaster relief funds for Hurricane Irene hostage.
Both parties have long used Congresss procedural rules to promote legislation they favor, but Gingrich created something new. There is the assumptionpioneered by Newt Gingrich himself, as early as the 1970sthat the minority wins when Congress accomplishes less, Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the number-two Democrat in the House, explained in a 2009 speech at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Gingrichs proposition, and maybe accurately, was that as long as our party cooperate
How Newt Gingrich Crippled Congress | The Nation
