Congressman Lee Hamilton looked out over the Fishers High School Seniors in the auditorium, giving them all a brief explanation of how America’s representative form of government works. The long-time former member of Congress spent some time with the Indiana State Champion We the People team.
In his speech in the high school auditorium, he wasted no time in getting down to business with his main message – “Our representative government is not functioning as well as we’d like it to,” Hamilton said.
Lee Hamilton should know. He spent 34 years on Capitol Hill, representing his district in southeast Indiana.
The former Democratic lawmaker knows Congress is held in low esteem now. Why? He lists a number of reasons.
Hamilton believes the Congress is too timid, which has expanded the power of the presidency by deferring to the White House. Congress no longer declares war and hasn’t since World War II, despite having armed forces deployed in combat roles around the world. He is baffled by members of Congress who constantly say they don’t trust the president, yet those same members give that same president total authority to wage a war.
Congress has also allowed the president to take over the budget making process, once the purview of of the legislative branch. “Today, the president submits a budget to the Congress and it is overwhelmingly approved, no matter what the leaders of Congress say when they get the budget,” Hamilton argued. “They almost always say (the budget) is dead on arrival. That is pure, unadulterated baloney.”
The White House has also supplanted Congress in setting the political agenda. The former congressman says the Congress only reacts to proposals put forth by the president.
Hamilton is perplexed that the Federal Reserve Board has taken such a leading role in managing the economy. That, he says, should be the job of Congress. In Hamilton’s view, the Congress is at fault for not exerting its authority in economic affairs of the nation.
Lee Hamilton says he wants a strong presidency and a strong Congress. But he worries how far we, as a society, can continue to move in strengthening the executive branch, and continue to have a representative form of government. This, he says, has distorted our constitutional system.
Congress needs to return to the regular process of forming budgets. That hasn’t happened for a very long time. To get out of the current dysfunction, Congress must stop using a last-minute Omnibus spending bills formed overnight, thousands of pages long, according to Hamilton.
The latest system of having government shutdown threats to pass a budget is not serving the country well, the veteran lawmaker argues.
“Great democracies do not lurch from doomsday moment to doomsday moment,” Hamilton said.
The leadership of both parties on Capitol Hill did not escape Hamilton’s wrath. He cannot fathom why leadership works to prevent the Congress from voting on some of the most important issues before the nation, such as immigration and climate change.
Hamilton openly questioned how lawmaking can even happen with the few session days held. A normal week on Capitol Hill begins on Tuesday and ends on Thursday. Even fewer session days are scheduled in 2016, an election year.
Fundraising is also a bigger part of a member’s normal day, which Hamilton says gets in the way of doing legislative work.
Compromise is key to getting things done, and is harder to do when elected officials say they will not compromise. That, Hamilton says, will not work.
The elder statesman then took questions from the Fishers High School students. Below are the questions and a summary of Congressman Hamilton’s responses…
What is your view of Donald Trump’s style of politics?
I don’t admire (Trump’s style). He denigrates too many people, too many groups. I’ve been amazed and I’ve been wrong about his success. I do not approve of his style. It does not help advance the public dialogue.
What is your opinion of the Electoral College?
I happen to believe in democracy. The Electoral College is not democracy, but it’s served us pretty well. It would take a constitutional amendment to change it, and there is no indication enough support exists to get that done. It’s largely an academic question.
What was it like to serve on the 9/11 Commission?
9/11 was one of the most traumatic events ever in our country. More than 3,000 people died. It has had a profound impact on you, what you study, what you think, on your parents and all Americans. Of the commission’s 60 recommendations, about two-thirds have been enacted. It is my view that the country is safer and more secure because of the recommendations we made. The most important recommendation adopted was better communication among government agencies in sharing intelligence information.
The 9/11 Commission was bipartisan, what impact did that have?
The commission had 5 Republicans and 5 Democrats. He and his Republican co-chair, Tom Kean, worked together on every decision. Any recommendation had to have unanimous approval, which wasn’t always easy. Consensus building is hard work.
I first got to know Congressman Hamilton while morning news anchor at WCSI Radio in Columbus, Indiana. I had the pleasure of interviewing him several times. I had the chance to meet a number of political leaders in that job. Lee Hamilton was at the top of the list among that group in professionalism and just being a top-notch statesman. It was good to see him again.