Across the country, you could feel the anger and frustration bubbling up long before Election Day. There were signs people were tired of the chaos and the name-calling. They were disgusted by the meanness they saw coming from the Republican Party. They wanted the economy to get better, and many wanted an end to the war with Iran.
Too many Republicans in Washington had little to offer on the issues that concerned people most. What voters saw instead was blind loyalty to President Donald Trump. When Republicans lost the House and the Senate, it was a devastating blow, and they earned it.
When Republicans lost the House and the Senate, it was a devastating blow, and they earned it.
But for all that, this could actually be an exciting time to be a Republican. A party with a long and important history in this country has a chance to rebuild around the ideas and values that once drew people to it. I’m talking here about fiscal responsibility, which helps create the conditions for economic growth.
And to do that, the party had better make room for some of the loyal Republicans it left behind in recent years. I count myself among them.
I’m thinking of people who spent much of their lives working for what they understood to be conservative Republican principles and who, somewhere along the way, found themselves on the outside of a party they had helped build. These folks, including leaders like former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who has publicly criticized Trump and the Republican Party’s loyalty to him, have more to offer than their votes in the next election. They have ideas about what government ought to do — and where it ought to exercise some restraint.
If Republicans are serious about finding their way back to their roots, those people ought to have a hand in deciding what comes next.
As for the Democrats, we know there will be investigations coming from the congressional committees they’ll soon control. Yes, they can investigate, but can they govern? I believe that question comes down to how well they can collaborate with the party they just defeated. Democrats won the majority, now it’s their job to lead. But they ought to bring Republicans in while they’re still figuring out how to solve a problem. And Republicans who are smarting from this defeat have to be willing to put that humiliation aside and do the work they were elected to do.
It’s high time Congress passed an immigration bill that protects our border and makes room for people to come here legally. Legal immigration is part of the lifeblood of this country. Surely there are enough Democrats and Republicans who believe in both of those things to sit down and write a bill together.
On affordability, I would begin by putting an end to the use of tariffs as a political weapon. I’d also like to see Congress get to the root of why healthcare keeps getting more expensive. Members of both parties heard a lot about those costs back home. They ought to be able to work together on bringing them down.
Congress also has a responsibility to take back some of the authority it has allowed to accumulate in the executive branch over the years. That means members have to be willing to make a tough decision, cast a vote and then go home to explain it. That’s part of what it means to represent people.
Finally, is either party willing to sound the alarm about a national debt approaching $41 trillion? We heard very little about it during midterm campaigning, but our children and grandchildren will have to live with the consequences.
In 1997, as chairman of the House Budget Committee, I worked with a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, on an agreement that helped produce four straight years of federal budget surpluses. Neither of us got everything we wanted. We agreed that balancing the budget mattered enough to keep working at it.
Last year, I urged Trump to get behind a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. No one has a bigger megaphone to explain what’s at stake if we keep borrowing to pay today’s bills. An amendment could give Congress time to bring the budget into balance and the flexibility to borrow in a national emergency. The president could do the next generation a real service by making that case. Whether he does, of course, is a whole different matter.
One of the things I love about this country is that when Americans get to their feet and make their voices heard, they give us a real opportunity to renew ourselves. I still believe we can live up to our name, the United States of America.
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