Congress Has Become the Least Dangerous Branch | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Congress Has Become the Least Dangerous Branch | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "constitutional scholar Charles Black once commented, 'My classes think I am trying to be funny when I say that, by simple majorities,' Congress could shrink the White House staff to one secretary, and that, with a two-thirds vote, 'Congress could put the White House up at auction.' (I sometimes find myself wishing they would.)

But Professor Black wasn't trying to be funny: it's in Congress' power to do that. And if Congress can sell the White House, surely it can defund an illegal war and rein in a runaway bureaucracy.

If they don't, it's because they like the current system. And why wouldn't they? It lets them take credit for passing high-minded, vaguely worded statutes, and take it again by railing against the bureaucracy when it imposes costs in the course of deciding what those statutes mean.

But it's our fault as well. In the shell game of modern American governance, we've let ourselves become easy marks. Unless and until voters wise up and demand accountability, Congress will continue to take our money and shirk its duty."