Nancy Mace Sounds Just Like Marjorie Taylor Greene In This Op-Ed

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) had some harsh words for Republican leadership in the House of Representatives in an op-ed she penned for The New York Times.

The lawmaker railed against the inability of House Republicans to pass meaningful legislation despite having the majority in the legislature and compared it to how Democrats were able to advance their agenda when Nancy Pelosi was the House Speaker.

“I’ve learned that the system in the House promotes control by party leaders over accountability and achievement,” Mace wrote. “No one can be held responsible for inaction, so far too little gets done.”

She further noted that the lower chamber’s problems “didn’t start witht his Congress” but have “been building for decades “ and “the current leadership has failed to reverse it — and in some ways deepened it.”

A small number of lawmakers negotiate major legislation behind closed doors and spring it on members with little notice or opportunity for input. Leadership promises members their provisions will be in a bill, then strips them out in final drafts. Every must-pass bill is loaded with thousands of pages of unrelated policies, presented as take-it-or-leave-it. The House has abdicated control of appropriations, which the Constitution says must originate here, to the Senate.
For much of our history, most House business was conducted under an open rule: Any member could offer any germane amendment. Over the last two decades, both parties have moved to closed and structured rules, in which no amendments or only handpicked amendments are allowed votes. The House has not considered a single open rule since 2016. Leaders of both parties have systematically silenced rank-and-file voices.
Consider some issues on which Americans have made up their minds. Banning congressional stock trading: Eighty-six percent of voters are in favor. Term limits: Eighty-seven percent of adults support them. Voter ID: Seventy-six percent of people support requirements. These are bipartisan supermajority positions. The House cannot hold a simple up-or-down vote on any of them.
Rank-and-file lawmakers can still use discharge petitions to force action on bills leadership won’t schedule. If 218 members sign one, a bill must come to the floor. We used this tool to pass a bill ordering the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. I signed another discharge petition that would force a vote on a bill to ban congressional stock trading. Nearly every colleague claims to support this policy — in town halls, in local papers, on cable news. But when asked to sign that petition, they vanish rather than upset House leadership.

When Democrats hold the majority, they ram through the most progressive policies they can. They deliver for the coalition that elected them while they are in power.
Republicans do the opposite. We get the majority, then become petrified of losing it. We pass the most moderate policies we can pressure conservatives to accept, betraying the coalition that delivered us here. Ms. Pelosi was ruthless, but she got things done. The current House is restrictive and ineffective, control with barely any results. Republican leadership seems intent on replicating her model of consolidation without her bold vision to push through the policies that won us the majority.

She also criticized Republican leadership in the House for sidelining female lawmakers, noting that “Women will never be taken seriously until leadership decides to take us seriously, and I’m no longer holding my breath.”

Mace’s statements mirror much of what Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said when she announced that she was resigning. She argued, “No matter which way the pendulum swings, Republican or Democrat, nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman.”

The debt goes higher. Corporate and global interests remain Washington’s sweethearts. American jobs continue to be replaced whether it’s by illegal labor or legal labor by visas or just shipped overseas. Small businesses continue to be swallowed by big corporations. Americans’ hard earned tax dollars always fund wars, foreign aid, and foreign interests. The spending power of the dollar continues to decline. The average American family can no longer survive on a single bread winner’s income as both parents must work in order to simply survive. And today, many in my children’s generation feel hopeless for their future and don’t think they will ever realize the American dream, which breaks my heart.”

An Associated Press-NORC poll revealed that a significant chunk of Republican voters agree with these sentiments. It found that the percentage of GOP voters who believe the country is on the wrong track jumped from 29 percent in June to 51 percent in September — even with Republicans controlling the legislature and the White House.

If this trend continues, it does not bode well for the GOP in the upcoming midterm elections.

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