By Rick Manning
You will read a lot of stuff about the House leadership decision. Some will claim chaos and internal warfare, others will try to place blame.
Remember it is all spin, by professional spinners to try to create a narrative.
I am confident that the House Republicans will find a Speaker who is acceptable to the entire Conference, and a leadership team that represents the spectrum of the GOP.
What is clear is the shocking decision by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to leave the race for House Speaker opens up the process to a full and complete discussion of the proper role of the House of Representatives.
Whoever steps into the running and ultimately becomes the new Speaker must move to restore the separation of powers between the branches of government. An effective Speaker will unite House Republicans through a revival of the House’s constitutional prerogatives, including the Article I power of the purse, to stop President Obama’s regulatory onslaught against the U.S. economy and freedom.
The big picture is that the upcoming debt ceiling and government funding discussions will have new players at the table, and as a result, we may have a different outcome this time.
I have no dog in the fight over who wins, but I do care about whether we put the brakes on Obama’s out of control regulatory regime.
That said, a consensus may be building around the vision, if not the person, of Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.). After outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced his imminent retirement, it was Roskam who took the initiative and forced a meeting amongst his House Republican colleagues where he reportedly laid out a vision where Congress reassert its Article One constitutional authority.
Part of that means empowering the individual members to put their mark on legislation, and restoring normal order, allowing amendments, and building consensus among all the wings of the GOP on major legislation. Only then will the House be able to present a united front to the Senate and the White House to win some of these funding battles.
This does not come down to ideology. Restoring the separation of powers and reasserting the House’s constitutional power of the purse is the important work before whoever succeeds John Boehner as House Speaker.
Power should begin to devolve away from the Speaker’s office, and to the members who truly speak for the American people.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
