The Case for Jim Jordan to Be the Next House SpeakerAmerican Spectator, Aug 17, 2018, Michael Slee, Jeremy Frankel
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There are very good reasons for this. When it comes to issues like controlling spending, fixing our immigration system, bringing healthcare decisions back to the people, defending the sanctity of life, and restoring the judiciary, Jim Jordan has never ceased to be advocate for the interests of liberty-loving conservatives.
Jordan plans to change the way Congress operates by making it more transparent and conducive to more debate, rather than capitulation to the other side. A good example of what Jordan is up against is the $1.3 trillion omnibus that Congress passed in March, funding all of the Democrats’ priorities and leaving little for the wall and border enforcement. House members had nowhere near enough time to read the enormous bill, let alone debate on it. And of course, no amendments were allowed. President Trump reluctantly signed the bill due to the omnibus funding the military, but there is no doubt he regretted it and never wanted to fund the other side’s policies and undermine his own agenda.
Trump would never have to deal with that again if a principled conservative like Jordan were Speaker. Appearing on Mark Levin’s radio show late last month, Jordan stated that most members of the House have no role in decision making, as all the decisions are made by the leadership. Jordan also lamented the fact that while making all the decisions for the Republican conference, House leadership has no desire to fight. “We forfeit even before we have a debate!†Jordan said to Levin.
Jordan clearly recognizes that the top-down nature of how leadership has run the House drains the legislative branch of the Founders’ intent for it to be a deliberative body and undermines the will of the American people. The House is meant to be the body closest to the people and a Jordan speakership would greatly help in a return to republicanism.
He believes a simple solution to empower the people’s representatives would be to involve more of the members in the process of crafting legislation and having open and substantive debates on legislation instead of everything being created in smoke-filled rooms with a small group of people at the top deciding everything. Another systemic reform Jordan believes would fix the nature of Congress is to leave the choices of chairmen for committees up to the members of the committees instead of House leadership.
Read more:
https://spectator.org/the-case-for-jim-jordan-to-be-the-next-house-speaker/
