A Stitch in Haste

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell tossed out this scrumptious piece of micro-blather twice on yesterday’s “This Week” (I’m paraphrasing):

Fifty percent of the American people are represented by Republicans in the Senate.

Of course, McConnell can only come up with that ridiculously pointless factoid by counting the 15 states with one Senate Republican and one Senate Democrat. But that’s not the point.

The point instead is that the raison d’être of the Connecticut Compromise — indeed the very raison d’être of the United States Senate — is precisely to tell “fifty percent of the American people” to take a flying leap. The Senate was explicitly designed to ignore population. So how about we ignore it?

Does McConnell really want to open that door? Fine, I’ll walk through it, first by noting that 97% of the American people are not farmers — but farm states control about one-quarter to one-third (depending of your definition of “farm state”) of the Senate’s votes (and about 100% of the Agriculture Committee). Which is precisely why, so long as we have the Senate, we will have obscene farm subsidies and agriculture policies (not to mention the ethanol scandal).

Or a more current-events example: The UAW represents less than 0.2% of the American population, but controls at least 2% of the Senate vote (likely more).

The 25 smallest states have less than 17% of the population, but half the voting power of the Senate. So not only is it not surprising that insane laws (and especially insane appropriations) are regularly passed. What’s surprising is that any sane law or appropriation ever gets passed.

Like I said: McConnell really doesn’t want to open that door.

Filed under: Constitutional Issues, Politics