What Is The Senate's Job?

David Boaz:

Some people believe that the Senate is “broken” when it doesn’t pass new government programs promptly and without extended debate. But we have two houses of Congress for a reason. The Founders expected the House to be subject to momentary passions, and they intended the Senate to be more cautious, prudent, and resistant to “rushing to judgment.” As George Washington supposedly said, “we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.” When the Senate deliberates at length, when it resists the pressure of the White House, the House, and even public opinion, it isn’t “broken”; it is fulfilling its intended function.

Of course, pre-17th Amendment, the Senate's job was to protect federalism. Post-17th Amendment, the Senate's job is to protect The Party System.

Absolute Power Corrupts

The Tenth Amendment Center, after demonstrating how both Republicans and Democrats campaigned on limited government, then discusses why neither political party actually fulfilled those promises:

What has gone wrong? In Federalist 51, James Madison wrote,

But the great security against a gradual concentration of those several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional and personal motives to resist the encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of the attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions… (emphasis added)

We have written about incentives here. Unfortunately, today the incentives are wrong. The Seventeenth Amendment has misaligned the interests of our Senators and our state legislators have forgotten their role as one of Madison’s “auxiliary precautions”. A century of consolidation later, our government has become so powerful that it corrupts nearly everyone who arrives there. Further, we the people have forgotten our own role as the primary control on government.

As the e-mails, blog posts and articles counting down the days to the November elections appear, 100 days, 99 days, 98 days, …., it is important to be consider that November is not the solution to our problems. Remember Lord Acton,

“All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The solution to our problem is not to find the right people and send them to Washington. By all means, vote the bums out, but if that is the end of it, the new crop of bums (from both parties) will forget their limited government rhetoric just as surely as their predecessors did. We have a continued role to play as an informed and active citizenry.

When people have faith in the intentions of a party or a politician, they don't care about the methods. Centralizing power requires an audacity of hope that only good people will have the opportunity to exercise that power. We have to recognize that those in power will not always have the best of intentions, and the best solution is to limit the power of government regardless of who is in charge at the moment. A limited government will naturally result in limiting the incentive for corrupt people to pursue government power.

Advise And Consent

Another bad effect of the Seventeenth Amendment is that the Senate, having been captured by party interests, approves of judges who are captured by party interests. Thus, all branches are controlled by the party, and all branches want to centralize power within their own party.

And so Elena Kagan, like recent Justices, gets appointed because she shows loyalty to her party, and not because she has shown that she will be a fair and impartial jurist:


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This is why the judiciary became "activist" in the 20th century. These nominees get appointed by promising to impose the less-popular aspects of the party's agenda. They proceed to do for the party what the legislature would suffer if it did. I don't want an activist judicary that will impose either party's agenda.

Repeal the 17th Amendment, and put a Senate in place that will approve judges who will uphold the Constitution, instead of demagogues who will say whatever their constituents want while obeying the will of the party.

Unaccountable Panel To Ration Medical Care

According to President Obama's Budget Director:



It is literally unAmerican to give government authority to someone and make them virtually unaccountable. There is no way this could have happened if Senators were accountable to their state legislatures. As it is, Senators are only accountable to their political party.

The Spirit of Jefferson Lives in Virginia

The ability of states to judge the Constitutionality of an act of Congress originally lay in the authority of state legislatures to appoint Senators who would restrain the House from passing unconstitutional legislation. (Though nullification was discussed even before the Constitution became law, once the Senate was properly in place, Senators worked to preserve decentralization while still fighting for good ideas, such as abolition, etc., with nullification being just a threat. Yes, it's an oversimplification.) Repealing the 17th Amendment would make the threat of nullification unnecessary because states would nullify unconstitutional acts before they ever became law. Repealing the 17th Amendment now would also create a Senate which would, over time, work to gradually reduce unconstitutional infringements on our liberty. This would be so because Senators who did not fight for their states would not be reappointed by the state legislature. As it is, ridiculous personalities and party theatrics are how Senators get elected and re-elected now. And their single-minded purpose is to preserve power for their party and perpetuate the party system.

Hat tip: Tenth Amendment Center