‘Broken beyond most means of repair’: 2 more GOP House chairmen to retire

Feb 15

Ray Bogan Political Correspondent

By Ray Bogan (Political Correspondent)

The retirements in Congress are continuing, and this time it’s two high-ranking Republicans. House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and the Chairman of the Select Committee on China Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., announced they won’t seek reelection this fall. Both lawmakers both said dysfunction is the reason why.

Gallagher blamed career politicians.

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“The Framers intended citizens to serve in Congress for a season and then return to their private lives,” Gallagher said in a statement. “Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career.”

Green echoed Gallagher’s statement about serving for a season.

“Our country — and our Congress — is broken beyond most means of repair,” Green said. “I have come to realize our fight is not here within Washington, our fight is with Washington.”

“The states have got to sue the heck out of Washington, D.C.,” Green told Straight Arrow News. “Washington, D.C., has gobbled up power from the states. The 10th Amendment is very clear: If it’s not enumerated in the Constitution, the federal government doesn’t own it.”

Partisanship is also an issue. Straight Arrow News spoke with lawmakers who agree Congress is dysfunctional, but they blame the opposing party when asked why.

“I think our biggest challenge is that our guys represent their districts,” Green said of Republicans. “On the other side of the aisle, they just vote their ideology. So they’re all the same lockstep, and that makes it really hard. We have to have bigger majorities. That’s the solution.”

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who once ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, said said the dysfunction is “centered in the Republican Party.”

“What you’re seeing in the House is representative of the dysfunction in the Republican Party across the country,” Moulton said. “They don’t know how to deal with this crazy man, Donald Trump, who is a real national security risk to our country and yet is going to be nominated on their presidential ticket.”

Moulton, a veteran like Green, would like to see multiple changes to Congress and campaigning, including eliminating gerrymandering, getting money out of politics and getting rid of partisan primaries.

In an ideal world we need to make some constitutional structural changes to how Congress works, how members are elected. I mean, these are all reforms that would help. But in the meantime, we just need to get better leaders to run for Congress.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.

“In an ideal world we need to make some constitutional structural changes to how Congress works, how members are elected,” Moulton said. “I mean, these are all reforms that would help. But in the meantime, we just need to get better leaders to run for Congress.”

One newer member, Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., said Congress was designed to be dysfunctional by the Constitution’s framers.

“The problem is, as soon as you make it an efficient government it becomes overly powerful,” McCormick said. “We designed our government by the Constitution of the United States to be very inefficient on purpose so that it would never become more powerful than the people themselves. When I get frustrated, I have to remind myself, we are on purpose designed this way,”

There are 44 House lawmakers who are either not seeking reelection or seeking another office in November — 10% of the chamber.

Tags: House of Representatives, Mark Green, Mike Gallagher, Rich McCormick, U.S. Congress

[RAY BOGAN]

The retirements in Congress continue. This time it’s two high ranking members of the Republican party.

House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green and the Chairman of the Select Committee on China Mike Gallagher announced they won’t seek reelection this fall. They both said dysfunction is the reason why.

Gallagher says career politicians are the problem. He added in a statement: “The framers intended citizens to serve in Congress for a season and then return to their private lives. Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career…”

Green echoed Gallaghers statement about serving for a season and added: “Our country–and our Congress–is broken beyond most means of repair. I have come to realize our fight is not here within Washington, our fight is with Washington.”

[RAY BOGAN]

How do you fix it from outside?

Rep. Mark Green: “the states have got to sue the heck out of Washington, DC. Washington, DC has gobbled up power from the States. The 10th amendment is very clear, if it’s not enumerated in the Constitution the federal government doesn’t own it.”

[RAY BOGAN]

Partisanship is also an issue. We spoke with lawmakers who agree Congress is dysfunctional, but when asked why – they blame their opposing party.

Rep. Mark Green: “So that I think our biggest challenge is that our guys represent their districts, right? So you’ve got folks from this district that’s different than that district.// on the other side of the aisle, they just vote their ideology. So they’re all the same lockstep, and that makes it really hard. We have to have bigger majorities. That’s that’s the solution.”

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-MA: “What you’re seeing in the house is representative of the dysfunction in the Republican Party across the country. They don’t know how to deal with this crazy man, Donald Trump, who is a real national security risk to our country, and yet is going to be nominated on their presidential ticket.”

[RAY BOGAN]

Do you think that there is a specific remedy to to fixing it if you believe it can be fixed?

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-MA: “Well, look, I think that actually you probably in an ideal world need to make some constitutional structural changes to how Congress works, how members are elected. Let’s eliminate gerrymandering, let’s get money out of politics, let’s have less partisan, you know, choices in elections by having, by getting rid of partisan primaries. I mean, these are all reforms that would help. But in the meantime, we just need to get better leaders to run for Congress,”

[RAY BOGAN]

We also spoke with Congressman Rich mcCormick who said Congress was designed by the framers of the constitution to be dysfunctional. Here’s his explanation as to why.

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-GA: “The problem is, as soon as you make it an efficient government it becomes overly powerful. We designed our government by the Constitution of the United States to be very inefficient on purpose so that would never become more powerful than the people themselves. And that’s one thing I have to remind myself all the time, when I get frustrated, I have to remind myself, we are on purpose, designed this way, so that we don’t become too powerful. So we don’t become so efficient that we get so much done and we swing the pendulum immediately. “

[RAY BOGAN]

There are currently 44 House lawmakers who are either not seeking reelection or seeking another office in November. That’s 10% of the chamber. Straight from DC, I’m Ray Bogan.