Problem solvers can, at long last, be kingmakers

By now, two things should be obvious. First, the most consequential divide in Washington isn’t between Democrats and Republicans—it’s between problem-solving legislators in both parties, and the intransigent ideologues who sit beside them. Both party caucuses include members determined to steer the country forward together—but they’re simultaneously bogged down by showboats who prefer throwing insults to getting things done. Second, those legislators determined to solve problems can’t succeed if they work exclusively with their own party, especially now that Democrats will control the Senate and Republicans will control the House.

Conventional wisdom is that bipartisanship will be on the wane these next two years, simply because, with Republicans holding such a small majority, a group of increasingly extreme Freedom Caucus members seems to believe it can make a puppet of the next speaker, presumably Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), threatening to bring him down anytime they don’t get what they want. And what they want, it seems, is to spend the next two years endlessly investigating the current administration to the exclusion of passing legislation to actually make American lives better.

But here’s the reality: McCarthy doesn’t need to be held hostage to the fringe of the Freedom Caucus—indeed, most members of his caucus are as put off by their colleagues’ insatiable desire to stir the pot. Legislators of good will on both sides of the aisle don’t come to Washington to garner likes on social media or “hits” on cable news—they actually want to get things done. And the simple way to do that—the best way to overcome opposition from the fringe—is to reach across the aisle.

It’s well within McCarthy’s power to strike this balance. He can let the Freedom Caucus pursue its investigations even while encouraging bipartisan cooperation on the issues voters most care about. The fringe on the right will, for example, want to use the debt-ceiling vote approaching later in 2023 as a leverage point to embarrass Democrats, even though failing to raise the debt ceiling would imperil the full faith and credit of the United States, drive up mortgage rates, make it almost impossible to get out from under credit card debt, and send the economy into a tailspin. The reality is that McCarthy and most of his Republican colleagues don’t want that—and they needn’t be held hostage to showboating ideologues who see politics as a game. McCarthy simply needs to engage his Democratic peers.

The same was true in the previous Congress as well—though, because Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House, bipartisanship seemed optional. But in practice it wasn’t—there was no way the Biden administration was going to get the infrastructure bill passed without the support of the House Problem Solvers Caucus and their allies in the Senate. And it’s for that reason that progress need not be elusive over the next two years. The same dynamic can simply be the first play, rather than a back-up for when one party tries and fails when going it alone.

Panicked reporting that the Freedom Caucus now controls the fate of Congress—that they will be able to lord the GOP’s small margin to get whatever they want—entirely misses the point. The real power today in Washington is with the Problem Solvers Caucus and their bipartisan allies in the Senate, a group that can quickly replace for McCarthy any votes he loses on the far right—assuming he engages substantively with problem-solving Democrats. Funding for Ukraine. Immigration and border security. Inflation. All these issues can be addressed if leaders in Washington simply work across the aisle. That’s why those eager to see Washington tackle big problems should take heart.

Over the last several years, as Washington was engaged in some of the worst political gamesmanship in decades, the Problem Solvers and their allies in the Senate established the working relationships and trust required to do things productively together. They helped pass the biggest infrastructure bill in six decades, the first federal gun safety bill in three decades, and a major innovation bill to ensure the U.S. retains our edge in the semiconductors that fuel our increasingly digital economy. In these next two years, the two parties must engage if they’re going to avoid the disaster that zealotry would inevitably serve up. And if they do—if our nation’s leaders are, at long last, convinced that working across the aisle is better than grandstanding for the cameras—the next two years will be a lot more productive than many people presume.

Margaret White is executive director of No Labels.