18 Roll Call Thursday, July 19, 2012 o p i n i o n No Labels Would Hurt Separation of Powers

By Louis Fisher pened in January 2010, when Obama at- tended a Republican retreat to publicly Guest In the July 14 New debate the merits of the administration’s York Times, Peter proposed health care law. “For a few hours Observer Baker describes a list at least, the American public got to see of recommendations offered by the bi- our leaders engage and truly debate one partisan group No Labels. Its announced another. We haven’t seen anything like it goal: make government function more ef- since.” fectively. In large part, however, it would There was little in the way of genuine push the United States away from separa- debate. Obama dominated the discussion tion of powers and checks and balances and marginalized Republican lawmakers. to one closer to the British parliamentary Given that experience, there would be no model. invitation for a repeat performance. No Labels proposes that the president No Labels favors new powers for the hold monthly news conferences and twice- president, such as authority to recom- a-year citizen news conferences, meet mend the deletion of individual items quarterly with the Congressional lead- in spending bills. It explains that when a ership of both parties and submit to 90- president receives an appropriations bill minute question-and-answer sessions he must choose between vetoing the en- ecutive officials meeting privately with se- Quotable each month on the floor of Congress, tire bill and accepting “some really unap- lected lawmakers to have their particular similar to the British question hour. In its pealing” items. The solution: authorize needs included in the president’s bill, thus report “Make Congress Work!,” No Labels the president to return those items to building advance Congressional support. “The president may be Congress for an expedited, up-or-down Another step toward “more transparency vote. This may sound appealing, but the and accountability in the legislative pro- right in how he reads procedure would shift the spending pow- cess?” Hardly. No Labels’ er from Congress to the president. More In “Make Congress Work!,” No La- the Constitution. suggestions to make likely: to political appointees and agency bels claims it does not “favor any party careerists. Consider also the president’s or particular cause.” Yet its partiality for But he also may be government more opportunity to coerce lawmakers. A typi- the president is evident. It recalls that on wrong. And if he is functional would cal quid pro quo: “I won’t put your pet Aug. 5, 2011, Congress “had collectively project on the rescission list if you agree lost its mind” by putting America’s credit wrong, who is there favor the executive to back my spending initiatives.” Through at risk. The debt ceiling crisis turned Con- this accommodation, spending would go gress into “one of the least respected in- to tell him so? And if branch and give it up, not down. It would certainly not de- stitutions in the United States.” There is liver what No Labels advocates: “more a pressing need, it says, “to fix our broken there is no one, the more power. transparency and accountability in the Congress.” legislative process.” Nowhere does the report confront the President, of course, As proposed by No Labels, presidential broken presidency, including going to ru- is free to pursue his expresses regret that campaign promises appointment powers would be greatly inous wars on false intelligence (Korea, to fix government are regularly followed strengthened. Nominees must be con- Vietnam, Iraq) and a sustained failure by course of erroneous by “poisonous rhetoric and partisan firmed or rejected within 90 days. If the recent presidents to address budget defi- posturing.” Anyone watching the British Senate failed to reject nominees during cits that threaten the nation. By assigning interpretations. What question hour is treated to a stream of ad that period, they would be automati- all political and constitutional ills to Con- hominems, poisonous rhetoric and parti- cally confirmed. The Senate’s advice and gress, No Labels asks us to trust in presi- then becomes of our san posturing. Why expect a U.S. version consent function under the Constitution dential power without explaining why. constitutional form of to function differently? would disappear. Nonaction during a The record does not show that we have Why would our political system be period of 90 days cannot be considered been blessed by competent, effective, re- government?” better if the president talks more than he “consent.” Why would Senators cede that liable and honest chief executives. currently does? As evident with President authority to a president? Leon Jaworski, Watergate special Barack Obama and his predecessors, talk Finally, No Labels wants to empow- Louis Fisher is scholar in residence at the prosecutor in arguments before the and rhetoric do not automatically lead er the president to send legislation to Constitution Project, after serving in the Supreme Court, July 8, 1974. to improved results. What is needed is Congress twice a year that could not be Library of Congress for four decades as political judgment and realistic legisla- amended but only approved or rejected. senior specialist in separation of powers tive agendas. Presidents and their advis- Such a procedure would undermine the at the Congressional Research Service ers regularly demonstrate few of those deliberative process in Congress and the and specialist in constitutional law at skills. Talk can be helpful in winning a system of representative government. the Law Library. He is the author of the campaign. It has scant value in actually Congress should not permit a president to forthcoming “The Law of the Executive governing. drive the legislative agenda in this man- Branch: Presidential Power” from Oxford No Labels is impressed by what hap- ner. One can imagine presidents and ex- University Press.

Editorial Director Mike Mills EVP & Managing Director Keith White Editor Scott Montgomery Managing Editor, Operations Katie Smith ADVERTISING SVP and Publisher, Advertising Beth Bronder Senior Editor Staff Photographers Vice President, National Sales Director Mary Cadwallader Morton M. Kondracke Tom Williams • Bill Clark Chris Maddaloni Directors Politics Editor Lauren W. Whittington Paul Anderson (Southeast Sales), Dave Deker (Midwest Sales) Senate Editor Emily Pierce Design Director Marilyn Gates-Davis The Newspaper of Capitol Hill Since 1955 Marie Kilroy (Mid-Atlantic Sales) Valerie Voci (Marketing), Braden Wright (Online & Consumer/Classified) House Editor Jason Dick Copy Chief Emily Ortman an economist group business Lauren York (Advertising Operations) Lobbying and Influence Editor Deputy Copy Chief Sara Bondioli Director of Circulation David Glickstein Adriel Bettelheim Copy Editors Classified Sales Shishir Sharma, Todd Kapner Cyra Master • Alex Muller Night Editor/Congress.org Founding Editor and Publisher Sid Yudain Ryan Teague Beckwith Editorial Assistant Director of Promotions Rebecca Gale Emily Cahn Copyright 2012 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Reproduction of this publication in Manager of Media Relations Sujata Mitra Opinion/Special Publications Editor whole or part is prohibited except with the written permission of the John Bicknell Staff Cartoonist R.J. Matson publisher. Roll Call maintains strict neutrality on all partisan issues. CIRCULATION SALES HUMAN RESOURCES Associate Politics Editor Contributing Writers SVP Jim Gale SVP Rodney Whitmore David M. Drucker Norman Ornstein VP Sean F. Doyle Stuart Rothenberg rollcall.com STRATEGY & MARKETING Photo Editor Douglas Graham FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE SERVICES SVP Rick Rockelli Don Wolfensberger Letters to the editor: [email protected] Staff Writers C. Simon Davidson SVP & Publisher Meg Hargreaves VP William Kiniry Kate Ackley • Steven T. Dennis Main office phone:202-650-6500 Nathan L. Gonzales Advocacy & Engagement TECHNOLOGY Shira Toeplitz • Daniel Newhauser Stan Collender SVP & Publisher Peter A. Anthony Kyle Trygstad • Janie Lorber Reprint requests: cqrollcall.com/reprints SVP & Chief Technology Officer Interns Joshua Miller • Amanda Becker Subscriptions: [email protected] or 800-289-9331 Dennis Arndt Neda Semnani • Eliza Newlin Carney Rachael Johnson • Nora Grenfell Meredith Shiner • Humberto Sanchez Justin Worland Classified advertising inquiries: [email protected] Jonathan Strong • Warren Rojas CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing Editor Display advertising inquiries: [email protected] Emma Dumain • Abby Livingston David Hawkings Niels Lesniewski Complete company masthead available at cqrollcall.com/masthead