Saturday, March 23, 2024 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
I consistently read letters that praise or denigrate one political party or person over another. I also read polls that demonstrably display an overwhelming negative view of Congress by American voters. Yet members of Congress overwhelmingly enjoy reelection.
The president actually has very little authority over domestic issues. Congress sets the budget, passes legislation to become law if signed by the president, and establishes taxes. Only recently has Congress ceded its authority in so many instances, resulting in policy and lawmaking by presidential executive orders.
The answer, it seems to me, is the man in the mirror. Imagine in the upcoming election not a single incumbent representative or senator was reelected: all 435 members of the House and a third of the Senate fired overnight.
New members could take office with no idea of self-made rules, procedures or committees. They all would have two years to enact term limits, write timely balanced budgets, reform and simplify the tax code and learn to be civil with bipartisan compromise.
Retake control of the government with a resounding NO SIR: Not One Single Incumbent Reelected.
