Local Opinion: The Senate let Biden abuse the system

An American president is not supposed to just forgive billions of dollars of student loan debt unilaterally. He’s not supposed to open our borders to floods of illegal immigrants because he wants to. He’s not supposed to send federal regulators after the fossil fuel industries that fuel our cars and trucks and heat our homes and businesses. (Especially when we’re recovering from a pandemic.)

But President Joe Biden did all these things. And the leaders of the entity with the most direct power over an American president — the United States Senate — has let him do it all.

Arizonans have seen their senators correct and constrain several presidents. Barry Goldwater led the GOP Senate delegation that told Richard Nixon his time was up, that the Senate GOP would not save him from the Watergate messes he’d created. John McCain single-handedly stopped Donald Trump’s Obamacare reform, because McCain feared that passing sweeping legislation without strong bipartisan support would poison and embitter our politics. Kyrsten Sinema defended the filibuster from numerous progressive Democrat attempts to weaken or eliminate it.

These senators acted because they knew the American system of government matters. Every four years we elect a president, not a philosopher king or boss. President Biden has governed as if Article I of the Constitution doesn’t exist. He has tried to game our system of checks-and-balances. His student loan forgiveness plan might cost Americans over $1 trillion. Significant spending measures like that are supposed be approved by Congress.

Charles C. Cooke of National Review writes that because the Biden administration is flouting Congress’ authority Congress has the strongest standing to sue the White House and stop or modify the program. But the Democrats control Congress, so the Biden administration is confident they won’t act. (And, so far, the Biden administration has been right!) By the time the GOP can seat a new Congress in January 2023, billions of dollars in student loans could be forgiven. All the GOP Congress can do then is close the barn door, long after the horse is gone.

When presidents behave that way, Congress is supposed to step up and stop it. The Senate has better tools than the House of Representatives does to make a president behave. The liberal Center for American Progress lists the key tools in “Minority Rules: Ten Ways To Bring The Senate to Its Knees.” Senators can vote against bills or nominees. They can use Senate procedures to delay legislation. “Senators who want to block progress can force hours of irrelevant debate,” writes the Center’s Ian Millhiser. “They can gum up the works with extraneous amendments. They can force lengthy amendments to be read aloud. They can demand time-consuming roll call votes on frivolous procedural objections.”

In this Senate, only 50 senators reliably vote Democrat. Just one Democrat senator can stop legislation or nominations by simply not showing up. And Arizona has two Democrat senators, one of whom (Mark Kelly) is up for reelection. It seems that no Democrat senators are making President Biden respect our system.

According to a popular story, American painter Gilbert Stuart was painting a portrait of King George III near the end of George Washington’s time as president. The king asked Stuart what Washington planned to do when he left office. (Many thought he might try to make himself King of the United States.) They say he will go back to his farm, Stuart replied. The king was silent, and then remarked, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

George Washington respected the American system. When senators don’t use their tools to make current or future presidents do the same, they let the American political system be weakened.