4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
PRO-CON
Should the Democrats retain
Pelosi as speaker of the House?
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California is cheered by a crowd of Democratic supporters during an election night event.
CON: Rep. Pelosi bad
for Democrats but
worse for America
PRO: House Democrats
don’t need to replace Pelosi
with a stronger progressive
S
ANTA CLARA, Calif. — The modern
lead in helping their parties win and maintain
speaker of the House is not solely the
majorities. While detractors may point to the
ideological leader of the majority party;
Democrats’ eight-year stretch in the minority,
nor is he or she simply a presiding officer guid- Pelosi did preside over the party’s initial return
ing floor proceedings.
to power in 2006, before Barack Obama
Rather, the position requires leadership in
became the face of the party.
and across the institutional, legislative, and
In her time as party leader, Pelosi has
electoral arenas. Nancy Pelosi remains the
excelled as a fundraiser, raking in millions in
Democrat best suited to fulfill that role.
campaign contributions, without which many
First, the speaker leads the House of
of her would-be challengers would have never
Representatives as an institution within a sys-
made it to Washington.
tem of separated powers.
The Nov. 6 elections also made it apparent
Nancy Pelosi has 30 years of House
that the progressive wing of the party may not
experience, including service on the powerful
be the key to majority status in the House.
appropriations and intelligence com-
While outspoken progressives
mittees and as whip to her predecessor
grabbed the headlines, the Democrats
as leader, Dick Gephardt.
owe much of their actual seat gain to
Her time in Congress has spanned
moderate victories in purple suburbs.
six presidents and all manner of unified
Achieving and maintaining
and divided government. Pelosi has the
the House majority requires party
institutional knowledge and experience
leadership that is willing to forego
MATTHEW T. ideological litmus tests and provide
that a challenger would almost cer-
HARRIGAN some latitude to moderate members, as
tainly lack, along with an appreciation
of the sharing of power that defines our
Pelosi did with the red-state Democrats
fragmented national government.
who rode Obama’s coattails to Washington in
This is especially vital in a House that must 2008.
work with and be a check against a president
A “big tent” may not excite liberals who
who has little regard for history and norms.
want to see significant change, but that
Second, the speaker possesses the respon-
approach is often necessary for a congressional
sibility of shepherding important bills through
party seeking majority status.
Congress and into law. Pelosi is widely lauded
Thus, Nancy Pelosi’s experience and
as a proficient legislative tactician and wrangler savvy make her the right choice for speaker in
of votes.
2018, and such a pick would not preclude the
In her first term as speaker, with Republican possibility of fresh Democratic leadership in
President George W. Bush from 2007 to 2009,
the future.
Congress passed significant lobbying reform,
As Pelosi herself has indicated, she can
a major farm and energy bill, and several mea-
navigate the troublesome waters of divided
sures to address the financial crisis.
government now, while the party grooms a new
In the first two years of the Obama pres-
class of leaders.
idency, Pelosi played a significant role in
As of this writing, those members who
getting the president’s signature legislative
expressed a willingness to vote against Pelosi
achievements over the finish line, including the as speaker have not backed an actual chal-
lenger. The 2020 elections have the potential
Affordable Care Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair
Pay Act, the 2009 fiscal stimulus, Dodd-Frank, to deliver Democrats unified government and
the opportunity to enact a more progressive
and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.
Many of Pelosi’s progressive challengers
agenda, but the party does not yet live in such
cite the issues addressed by these bills as
a world.
cornerstones of their new agenda, yet Pelosi
Matthew T. Harrigan is adjunct lecturer in
herself achieved tangible results.
the Department of Political Science at Santa
Clara University.
Third, modern speakers have taken the
A
RLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — Rep.
chief advocates of the Affordable Care Act,
Nancy Pelosi has been dreaming of
perhaps the single worst piece of health care
returning to her role as the speaker of legislation in American history.
the House of Representatives for more than
Not only did the ACA force millions of
seven years. It appears she’s finally going
Americans out of health insurance policies
they liked — after being promised repeatedly
to get her second chance — and Americans
that wouldn’t happen — it also subjected
everywhere should be nervous.
tens of millions of families to skyrocketing
As speaker, Pelosi presided over some of
health insurance premiums and deductibles.
the worst years in modern American history.
Premiums doubled from 2013 to 2017,
While President George W. Bush often
and HealthPocket reports the average deduct-
gets most of the blame, and unfairly so, for
ible for an Obamacare Bronze family plan
the 2008 economic crash, few remember
is a whopping $12,186 — well beyond what
Democrats had been running Congress for
most people can afford to spend in the midst
nearly two years leading up to the recession,
of a health care crisis.
when Pelosi was the party’s most
Even after all of these failures, it
prominent and vocal leader.
appears Nancy Pelosi hasn’t learned
It was Pelosi, along with other
her lesson. She’s still saying the best
Democratic leaders like former Rep.
way to solve America’s health care
Barney Frank, who routinely called
challenges is to repair Obamacare
for reducing home lending standards
— an impossibility, since it’s funda-
to achieve political goals — directly
JUSTIN
mentally and hopelessly flawed. And
contributing to the eventual collapse
HASKINS she wants to impose costly renew-
of the financial market.
able-energy mandates in a ridiculous
And according to former
attempt to control the weather and battle
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission mem-
ber Peter Wallison, Pelosi orchestrated what
climate change.
essentially amounts to a cover-up to hide the
Pelosi has mocked and ridiculed the Tax
Cuts and Jobs Act, ignorantly referring to the
government’s role in the crash.
thousands of dollars in extra cash delivered
Even worse, Pelosi and her Democratic
by the tax reform package to millions of
colleagues attempted to fix the disaster they
American families as “crumbs.”
were partially responsible for by wasting
And she’s called for raising taxes on job
billions of taxpayer dollars on a horrible
creators to fund her numerous proposals to
stimulus package.
expand the size and power of government —
The Pelosi-backed American Recovery
a strategy that would stunt economic growth
and Reinvestment Act cost more than $800
and increase unemployment.
billion, and according to analysts at the
Pelosi’s policies have failed over and
American Enterprise Institute, George Mason
University’s Mercatus Center, Congressional over again, which is why House Democrats
took one of the biggest political beatings
Budget Office and many more, it produced
in U.S. history during the 2010 elections,
few meaningful results, as evidenced by the
when Democrats, in a single year, went from
fact unemployment rose dramatically in the
enjoying a 79-seat advantage to being stuck
wake of its passage.
with a 49-seat deficit.
Economist Peter Ferrara, my colleague at
Pelosi’s policies offer Americans abso-
The Heartland Institute, analyzed every eco-
lutely nothing they haven’t already seen and
nomic crash and recovery over the past cen-
tury, and found the Obama-Pelosi policies of rejected before: more regulations, higher
2009 and 2010 created the slowest economic taxes, less freedom, and fewer health care
recovery since the Great Depression.
options. It’s time for something better.
Justin Haskins is executive editor and
Pelosi’s failures aren’t limited to eco-
nomics, either. She was also one of the
research fellow at The Heartland Institute.