What might incentivize Congress to tackle the deficit and colossal national debt?

And an interesting study on why media coverage of Congress focuses more on conflict than legislative achievements

Source: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The $35 trillion dollar question

Earlier this year, Gallup pollsters asked Americans how much they worry about the federal government’s deficit and debt. Seventy-seven percent worried about our nation’s red ink “a great deal” or “a fair amount.” 

This result was not unusual. Every year since 2011, between 63 and 87 percent of the individuals polled have said they were worried. 

Yet, elected officials have not responded by cutting spending or raising taxes. Mostly, they have engaged in theatrical battles over the debt limit and annual spending bills and then enacted legislation that made our nation’s finances worse.

America’s debt was around $12 trillion in 2012. Now it is $35 trillion. 

This is a distressing state of affairs and a peculiar one. The theory of representative government holds that elected officials want to get elected, and that to do so they will respond to a majority — so long as what the people want is not utterly outrageous or unconstitutional…. (Read more) 

News about the endlessly entertaining House of Representatives

• Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), the head of the House Freedom Caucus who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, reportedly has filed to run for reelection in 2026… (Read more)

• Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) lost to a Trump-backed primary challenger. Voters gave Jerrod Sessler 31 percent of the vote, Newhouse 25 percent, and the rest went to other candidates. Newhouse is not out of the running. Washington’s top two system means both Sessler and Newhouse advance to the November general election…. (Read more)

• Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) was visited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who took his cellphone as part of an investigation into possible campaign finance violations. “Ogles has been under scrutiny over $320,000 in loans that he made to his campaign in 2022”…. (Read more)

• Rep Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) is out of the hospital after four weeks. He is 87 years old, and running for reelection (yes, really)…. (Read more)

How the media affects our perception of Congress

Rob Oldham joined me on the latest episode of the Understanding Congress podcast. We discussed a study he coauthored with James Curry and Frances Lee on the media’s coverage of Congress.

Rob reports the existing scholarship has found “there is an overwhelming focus on conflict when it comes to media coverage of congressional policymaking. The media is sometimes believed to have a liberal bias, but as Newt Gingrich once said, the real bias—or at least the strongest bias—is towards a dramatic story.”

So what did Rob and his coauthors learn? That beat coverage of Congress encourages lots of stories about conflict because conflict is part and parcel of working towards legislative solutions…. (Listen in)

A quickie summary of a heady conference about governance

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) hosted an event titled, “Life After Chevron: How Will Congress & Federal Agencies Adapt?” The room was packed and there were a couple hundred online viewers. AEI’s video team distileld the three-hour event into a 10-minute highlights reel. Enjoy!