[Mb-civic] Ways and Means -- and a Price - David S. Broder - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Ways and Means -- and a Price

By David S. Broder
The Washington Post
Thursday, March 9, 2006; A19

In many ways, the saga of this Republican era in the House of 
Representatives can be summed up in the story of Bill Thomas, the 
California congressman who announced this week that he is retiring as 
chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and not standing for reelection.

Thomas is an able, principled conservative who has pushed through major 
legislation that has changed the direction of national policy and 
altered millions of people's life prospects. He is also someone who has 
inflicted substantial damage to the legislative process and to personal 
relationships on Capitol Hill, leaving bruised feelings in his wake.

In both ways -- in what he has accomplished and in the chaos he has 
wrought -- he typifies the mixed record of the 11 years since 
Republicans wrested control of the House from the long-dominant Democrats.

Thomas, one of the few professional political scientists to serve in 
Congress, roomed as a freshman in 1979 with a fellow academic named Newt 
Gingrich, and the two men chafed in similar fashion under Democratic 
rule. The Almanac of American Politics profile of Thomas recalls his vow 
at the time that if Republicans ever gained control, "We will not be 
civilized. We will not assume it's business as usual. We will not go 
back to playing the lackey."

No need to worry. Always one of the smartest and hardest-working 
members, Thomas came into his own as soon as the Republicans took power. 
First, as chairman of the minor House Administration Committee, he 
rammed through a set of procedural changes that tightened leadership 
control of the finances and operations of the House.

In 2001 he was named chairman of the mighty Ways and Means Committee, 
with jurisdiction over taxes, Social Security, Medicare and welfare. 
Since then, as he noted in his retirement statement on Monday, "We 
passed over $2 trillion in tax relief for hardworking American families, 
we provided the President with trade promotion authority so that he 
could seek freer and fairer trade markets, and we approved a long 
overdue voluntary prescription drug benefit in Medicare for the first 
time in the program's history."

All of those measures were and are controversial, but no one can dispute 
that Thomas's imprint on the legislation -- and, therefore, on American 
life -- has been significant.

The achievement, though, has come at a price. What was once a committee 
whose institutional pride was far greater than its partisan divisions 
has become a bitter political cockpit, where major national policy is 
set by party-line votes, rather than through patient negotiation and 
discussion.

As a result, when Thomas has brought bills to the floor of the House, 
they often have had to be muscled through by brute political force. The 
major trade bill of which he boasted passed 215 to 214. The Medicare 
drug benefit was approved only after the roll call was extended to 
almost three hours in a pre-dawn session while arms were twisted to 
avoid its apparent defeat.

Personally prickly and often impatient, Thomas quarreled bitterly with 
colleagues of both parties, but especially with some of the senior 
Democrats on his committee. His irritation with hard-edged partisans 
such as fellow Californian Pete Stark was understandable. But he 
effectively cut out the contributions of such reasonable and able 
legislators as Maryland's Ben Cardin, who in earlier years had been able 
to collaborate with Republicans on meaningful bills.

A low point came when Thomas ordered Capitol Police to break up a 
Democratic caucus in the Ways and Means library -- an action for which 
he later apologized to the House.

The irony in this situation is that the Thomas I got to know during the 
years his party was in the minority was a man with a genuine interest in 
developing the institutional strength of Congress. He regularly offered 
his own ideas on congressional reform -- always with an eye on the 
legitimate interests of Republicans but with concern that went beyond 
any narrow partisan or parochial advantage.

But like many others in the House GOP leadership, he has been willing to 
cut corners and run roughshod over others to achieve his policy goals. 
It is no accident that when the Democrats saw an opportunity to thwart 
him last year, they refused to consider any compromise on Social 
Security that did not rule out the private accounts Thomas and the 
president want.

No bridges had been built between the parties, no basis established for 
bipartisan talks on an issue of genuine national importance.

Now, facing a Republican-imposed term limit on his tenure as chairman, 
Thomas is quitting at 64, at the height of his vast intellectual and 
political powers. You have to wonder how much more he could have 
accomplished without the strong-arm tactics and how much less damage he 
might have caused.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006030801946.html
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