Posted on 09/07/2019 4:56:12 AM PDT by BeauBo
The recent announcement by James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that he would not seek re-election in 2020 sparked new worries among the GOP that retaking the House in 2020 might be nearly impossible. Although Sensenbrenner's district should be "safe" (as should about half of the more than a dozen seats in districts where Republicans are retiring), it never helps to lose an incumbent.
That said, in 2020, the control of the House may be well near irrelevant.
Over time, the House has had one major constitutional duty: the budget. All spending and taxation bills must originate in the House. But in all likelihood, the decline of the House started in 1995, when the newly elected Republican Congress under Newt Gingrich caved in to media pressure to give Bill Clinton his bloated budget. Since then, no House has even attempted to control the deficits or the debt. For eight years under George W. Bush, the rationale was to fund the War on Terror. Then, under Barack Obama, the Democrat House had no intention of dealing with the deficits or the debt. For eight years, under both Democrats and Republicans, nothing was done to recapture the budget process. Continuing resolutions were the rule of the day...
I write this with some sadness. It certainly was not the Founders' vision for the House to be the least relevant of the legislative process, and in the minds of many of the Founders, it was to be the most "democratic" and responsive to the people. Once the House ceded its most fundamental responsibilities, it was inevitable that those duties would be done by the Executive...
Nancy Pelosi has turned the House of Representatives into the American equivalent of the House of Lords.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Ping.
Lyin’ Ryan, the leftwing globalist, absolutely screwed America and our Constitution.
Take the money and run while the running is good.
Hey Larry... Do you ever bother to check your history? Newt Gingrich BALANCED the budget and forced Bill Clinton to abandon his bloated budgets (small by todays standards)
I like it!!!
The only time I wish to read that a hole’s name is in the obits. I detest him more than Romney because he was in office road blocking anything trump wanted to do beyond the tax cut.
I don’t think Federal spending declined even once during Newt Gingrich’s tenure as House Speaker, though the growth from one year to the next was quite small. The shrinking of the budget deficit was entirely a function of added tax revenues from the major changes in the tax code from 1995 to 1998 — specifically the reduction in capital gains tax rates and the introduction of the Roth IRA.
FOX News hiring Lyin’ Ryan & Donna Brazile (rhymes with “vile”) speaks volumes of their CNN-lite agenda.
I was young, but some days I yearn for the 90s. Really did not get to appreciate it
Im sure the rats are donating to the retirement of any GOP’er thinking of it thereby keeping the house in their possession. The cancer and scumbags run deep
“it never helps to lose an incumbent”
Huh????
Term limits aside, 22-term Sensenbrenner’s retirement is going to drive up Republican turnout in a solid Republican district in a very tight 2020 presidential race in Wisconsin.
It almost seems strategic.
We had two things helping this. The dot.com economy and substantally cutting the military.
Larry seems to have forgotten that the 2020 election will allow the PEOPLE to replace the “big spenders” of BOTH parties.
Once we replace them, the spending cuts that all reasonable people want will finally, FINALLY become possible!
“The old order changeth yielding place to the new”
The budget had a tiny, tiny “surplus” (meaningless cuz the debt wasn’t touched). Fine. Credit that to Newt. But the GOP was broken by Clinton, and I think you know that.
Exactly right. A “balanced budget” was a technicality-—Newt/Clinton achieved a tiny surplus on paper, but did nothing to touch the debt.
Incumbents win something like 95% of their races.
ANY time you lose an incumbent for any reason mathematically it increases your chances of losing the seat.
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