Making things happen in a gridlock

Ezra Klein of Newsweek reported that with the Senate in such a mess and unable to enact legislation we have a strange and disturbing side-effect. Congress is abdicating it's lawmaking duties to unelected agencies. Examples: The stalled cap-and-trade bill leaves the Environmental Protection Agency ready to act. Congress acted one stimulus package, but since that seems insufficient the Federal Reserve is doing its own stimulus. What to do about the national debt has been turned over to a bipartisan committee (though they will only recommend).

But why is this bad? We progressives appear to be getting what we want. However, the EPA is not understood, not accountable and not very transparent. It can't come up with compromise solutions or sweeten the deal with tax breaks. In the case of the EPA it could be politics. Lisa Jackson, its head, is quite willing to jump into the battle and impose a solution but is aware that she is being used by Obama as a threat -- get that climate bill done or I'll unleash the EPA.

How did we get into this mess? Ah, this is where it gets interesting. We'll start with the filibuster, which is actually an accident of senate rulemaking. Alas, it has become a primary way of controlling the senate (the number of filibusters in just 2009 equals the number from 1950 through 1969). The majority party can't act like a majority. Next is the ideology of the two parties. Both used to have members across the whole gamut of conservative to progressive. Now we have conservative purity in the GOP with Democrats encompassing the rest. In the process politics has become a battle of the minority making the majority fail so that it can be the majority the next time. Neither is governing.

How to get back to a functioning Congress, to get the party in power thinking beyond the next election? Get rid of the filibuster and similar rules, such as holds, but have them go into effect 8 years from now when we don't know who will control Congress. We need a Congress that will legislate, not allow agencies to legislate for them.