Wasteful Local Stimulus Funding Could Mark The End Of Competitive Federalism
by Paul E. Peterson, Carlos Lastra-Anadon via The Hill
A fiscal flood of biblical proportions — $1.3 trillion — is descending upon state and local governments via four pieces of congressional legislation enacted in the name of COVID relief. No less than $738 billion is scheduled to be spent in the current fiscal year. The Biden administration and congressional progressives are promising trillions more. The vast transfer of funds to lower tiers of government threatens the U. S. federal system as we know it.

​Congress Overwhelmed: The Decline in Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform
 Congress today is falling short. Fewer bills, worse oversight, and more dysfunction. But why? In a new volume of essays, the contributors investigate an underappreciated reason Congress is struggling: It doesn’t have the internal capacity to do what our constitutional system requires of it. Leading scholars chronicle the institutional decline of Congress and the decades-long neglect of its own internal investments in the knowledge and expertise necessary to perform as a first-rate legislature. Today’s legislators and congressional committees have fewer — and less expert and experienced — staff than the executive branch or K Street. This leaves them at the mercy of lobbyists and the administrative bureaucracy.  READ MORE
Our overwhelmed Congress
Do we need Congress?
House must take the first step to modernize how Congress works

China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy 
– Noah Smith, Bloomberg

In search of responsible republican government, part 2: The parties as a solution
 
Jay Cost | September 2019 
 

• Although political parties have long been in disrepute, they can help make our government more responsive to the public interest.
  
  
• A party’s purpose is to win elections for its members, but depending on how party rules are structured, parties can advance or hinder republican government.
  
  
• Changes to nominating procedures, campaign finance, and internal party rules could make the parties work more effectively for the national good.

In search of responsible republican government, part 1: The institutional problem
 Jay Cost | AEI | August 6, 2019

Restoring Congress: The parties are a solution
 Jay Cost | NationalReview.com | June 17, 2019

Updates To The Budget Calculator
via Budget Matters, America Off Balance
We are happy to announce we have updated the America Off Balance Budget Calculator to reflect the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) recent update to their 10-year budget and economic projections.
 

Congress must grow to check the administrative state 
James C. Capretta | RealClearPolicy 
 
James Capretta explores the rise of the administrative state and the corresponding decline in power of the legislative branch, explaining that Congress' persistent failure to properly fulfill the role of checking the executive branch in recent years, is one reason the nation's politics are out of balance. Capretta argues that Congress could begin to reassert itself by building stronger institutional support for the development of specific legislative responses to emerging issues and problems. The legislative branch has steadily lost power to the executive branch because it does not have the capacity to develop and implement legislative policies that can competently address the many challenges that present themselves in a modern economy. House and Senate members need more help from true experts to fulfill their constitutional roles. 
 
 
The 'administrative state' needs to follow the rule of law by Congress
Peter J. Wallison | The Hill  
 
Rules and regulations by federal agencies, which many now call the administrative state, are quickly supplanting Congress as the principal source of the rules that American citizens and businesses have to obey. Peter Wallison argues that the power of the administrative state must be reined in if we are to remain a nation where the rule of law prevails. The actions of administrative agencies such as the Justice Department must not go beyond what Congress authorized, and the courts should enforce this limit. 
 

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