Say goodbye to representative government. Nancy Pelosi distracted the entire country from her efforts to emasculate the House of Representatives by introducing legislation that devastates our economy by taking on more than $3 trillion in national debt.
Speaker Pelosi proffered a rule change that further arrogates power to her at the same time the House was considering the bankruptcy-inducing HEROES Act.
While the media and many members have focused on the shiny object of incalculable spending, Democrats approved a rule change that prevents members from debating or even asking questions about any legislation. All the power in the United House of Representatives now rests totally in the Speaker.
Additionally, Pelosi is moving the representation goalpost by allowing each member to cast votes for up to ten other members who don’t bother to show up. So instead of a majority of 218 members to constitute a quorum and 218 votes to prevail, only 22 members with proxies are necessary to show up. It will be up to non-elected employees of the House — the Sergeant at Arms and House Physician — to determine whether U.S. representatives come to work.
We expect the janitors to come to work at the Capitol, it’s just the members of the House of Representatives that Pelosi deems “nonessential.” The Senate, just across the street, has no problem with showing up to do their jobs.
By preventing debate, prohibiting amending legislation, and keeping people out of the Capitol, she has eliminated all of the attributes that comprise representation of voters. The rule changes vest all power in the Chair, which means Nancy Pelosi will rule.
Democrats have not been very fastidious in conforming to the rules anyway, but Pelosi’s dreams of dictatorial control are realized with the new rule.
Pelosi’s expansive overreach should have been rejected on a bipartisanship basis, but for some reason Democrats were willing to cede all power to the Speaker.
In the future, the process approved by Democrats would prevent the robust debate Congress had on FISA and other important bills.
The Speaker demonstrates that Democrats are content with authoritarianism by pushing bills that consolidate congressional power in her, while pushing her massive spending bill that takes more power away from people and the states and concentrates it in Washington, D.C.
Her $3.2 trillion bill grants amnesty to illegal aliens and pays them for being in America illegally. It releases convicted rapists, murderers and other felons from prison if they are over the age of fifty. It nationalizes all elections contrary to the Constitution. It attacks already cash-strapped businesses by extending family medical leave benefits while at the same time providing the perverse incentive for employees not to work by paying bonus unemployment benefits.
Instead of having a majority of members of Congress gather on the floor of the House to do our work, Pelosi’s new rule allows for only 22 members to show up and control the floor through the proxy method.
At the same time, members of Congress will be silenced and prevented from representing their constituencies because they will not be permitted to debate, raise questions and, for that matter, speak at all.
Pelosi is doing this while creating the greatest wealth transfer in the history of the world.
It’s been a pretty busy week for the Speaker as she has remade Congress by shattering the great institution of constitutional representation, Congress while enslaving generations of future Americans. And as an autocrat now runs the United States House of Representatives we can bid a mournful farewell to our constitutional republic.
Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) has represented Arizona in the United States House since 2017.