Editorial from the Chicago Tribune editorial board
If you’re wondering why Congress seems to accomplish so little, here’s a recap to get you steamed but in the end provides a scintilla of hope: Months ago, with COVID-19 raging, House Democrats passed a second aid package to send to states and local governments, this one totaling a very expensive $3 trillion. The Dems meant for it to be an opening bid; they came back with a $2.2 trillion version. Senate Republicans had countered with a $1 trillion offer, later reduced to a smaller, simpler version that Democrats blocked.
So opening bids of $3 trillion from one side and $1 trillion on the other, but no deal. Were there no members willing to work across the aisle to bring legislation to the finish line? Was every member of Congress so tightly bound to the script of compromise-is-defeat that they were willing to let Americans continue to suffer through the pandemic?
Yes and no. Yes because there’s still no second relief bill; no because there was a group of moderate Republican and Democratic House members who worked through their differences to propose a $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion package. It included stimulus checks, unemployment aid, money for state and local governments and small business loans that could have lasted through next spring. The plan went nowhere but showed that some members of both parties were willing to listen to each other in order to craft legislation.
Who were those outlier members? Politico described them as “rogue rank-and-file,” but the group has a name: the House Problem Solvers Caucus. They are 50 moderate representatives, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, who preach compromise and bipartisanship.
Things in Washington now look even messier than usual, with Republicans and Democrats not even in agreement over who was elected president. So this may seem like a heck of a time to be daydreaming about middle ground. Yet when the dust settles as expected, President-elect Joe Biden will take office as an old-school moderate Democrat. Progressives will try to tug him to the left, but he ran pledging to be a unifier. In the House, Democrats appear on track to retain a narrow majority after losing several seats. In the Senate, control will be determined by two runoff elections in Georgia.
One scenario says to expect only more gridlock. Another says thin partisan majorities in Congress plus a new president who runs at a lower temperature could set the scene for more cooperation. “It’s our mission and it seems like a good moment,” Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., a member of the Problem Solvers, tells us.
The Problem Solvers group formed in 2017. Its goal is as noble as any in government: “We strive to work together, regardless of party or background, to improve the lives of all citizens.” Name the tough-nut issue of the day and it has worked on a compromise: infrastructure, drug pricing, immigration, health care. Often, gridlock gets the best of the group, but it has won battles too, such as pushing progressive colleagues last year to get on board with Republicans and pass a humanitarian aid package for the southern border.
There’s a reason the Problem Solvers sound like Washington’s quaintest notion. Power is concentrated at the top in Congress, and the goal of party leaders is to secure their agenda by steamrolling the other side. In that universe, progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans have the momentum because they are true believers.
In many districts they are more likely to win elections by appealing to their political bases. Note that Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., a rare conservative Democrat and Problem Solver, lost his primary this year to progressive Marie Newman, who took the seat in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District last week.
Newman says she’ll join the Congressional Progressive Caucus, not the Problem Solvers. No surprise. But she says Republicans and Democrats need to start talking to each other, and wants to be part of that. “I really believe in walking down the hall and talking to people and talking in small groups and finding consensus,” she tells us. “I do think everybody is ready to do some compromising.”
