Congress has quietly rewritten its own job description — and the Supreme Court has largely accepted it. This is the root from which most other political dysfunction flows.
Constitution (Article I, Section 1):
“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States...”
The Violation: The House routinely passes vague, open-ended bills that let unelected bureaucrats in agencies write thousands of pages of binding law — with fines and criminal penalties. This directly contradicts the plain text that all legislative power belongs to elected representatives.
Result: An unaccountable administrative state that no voter can fire.
Constitution:
Supermajority votes are required only in specific, listed cases (treaties, veto overrides, amendments, impeachment). Ordinary legislation follows simple majority rule by design.
The Violation: The Senate’s self-imposed 60-vote cloture rule (created in 1975) now blocks most major bills. A minority can kill legislation that passed the House with a clear majority.
Result: Gridlock by design. Electoral victories become meaningless on the biggest issues.