Ralph Nader:

 

Photo: Washingtonian

The charge to minimize government overreach continues to be made by the Republican Party.  Which is no surprise, given their campaign speeches over the last few years.  I am still appalled by the actions of the Republican Party.  Even though I keep track of current events, recent events have still raised my eyebrows at times.  More times than I would like.  

Congress has become corporate soldiers.  Soldiers who follow the orders of the Generals from big corporations.  Orders are handed down through various avenues: campaign donations, lobbying on Capitol Hill, and grassroots campaigns in local districts.  Money flows to influence laws to favor big corporations.

The iconic Ralph Nader has a recent post on Congress.  Specifically, the actions of Speaker Mike Johnson.  Here is the post in full below:

By Ralph Nader

July 25, 2025

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson—probably the worst Speaker in American history—shut down the House early this week before its five-week vacation. He wants to avoid holding votes on releasing the Epstein files that reportedly include, among other notables, Donald J. Trump.

This is the latest valet service provided by a spineless Johnson, a Trump toady, whose groveling has no known boundaries. Imagine Johnson, a lawyer, took an oath to uphold the Constitution yet has no interest in safeguarding the independence of the Congressional branch of our government.

Like Trump, he falsely characterizes what is in the Trump corporate giveaway tax/budget bill that shattered the country’s social safety net for American families.  No one has ever even dared to promote such a draconian tax bill. Our country’s safety net has had the support of both Parties until the wrecking crew of Trump, Johnson and Senate leader Thune showed up.

Johnson declined to protect his own Party members who were raising serious questions about Trump’s big, destructive bill. He allowed the Trumpsters to physically threaten these dissenters to get them back in line.

Most seriously, he has further crumpled the Founders’ system of checks and balances by turning the House of Representatives into an automatic rubber stamp for Trump.  Johnson even refuses to allow his Committee Chairs to hold hearings on legislation Trump wants to ram through Congress.  Johnson and his cronies do no oversight of the Executive Branch despite Trump’s vast violations and vicious cruelties, such as firing tens of thousands of key federal civil servants and further debilitating the resources of the IRS to collect taxes from the evasive super-rich and big companies. And the list goes on.

As the New York Times elaborated further with this description: “Mr. Johnson’s decision to shut down the House early was the latest example of how the speaker has in many ways ceded the chamber’s independence in order to please or avoid angering Mr. Trump. He has deferred to the president on matters large and small, including when it comes to Congress’s spending power. He quietly maneuvered this year to yield the House’s ability to weigh in on Mr. Trump’s tariffs, in order to spare Republicans from having to cast politically tricky votes on whether to end them.”

The larger decline of Congress providing countervailing checks and balances reflecting the interests of the people, whose sovereign power under the Constitution has been delegated to it as a public trust, and has been eroded for decades. (See, “Congressional Surrender and Presidential Overreach” by Bruce Fein).

No matter who is in control, the GOP or the Democrats, the crass obeisance to the Executive Branch remains the surrendering norm.

The consensus by the two Parties extends to the minimal days that Congress is actually in session. The members take numerous vacations (they call them “recesses”). They see the weeks they work as starting on Tuesday and ending on Thursday. In between even those days, they are busy in fundraising offices dialing for campaign dollars.

With such limited workdays for a full-time, well-paying job, members of Congress have less time for hearings to investigate wrongdoing, waste and neglect of actions in the Executive Branch or the dubious ethical practices in the federal judiciary and federal prosecutors’ offices.

Increasingly, it is nearly impossible for informed citizens to secure Congressional hearings and be invited as witnesses, as was the case in the Sixties and Seventies. Congress is, however, “open for business” if you represent big corporations. Congress has built a cocoon around itself with a sign reading: Business Lobbyists Only.  People are bitterly complaining about their inability to get through to their Senators or Representatives if they are not big campaign contributors or from big business. (See, The Incommunicados by Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein).

The solution is obvious. The people back home must organize Congress Watch Groups— call it a crucial civic hobby (See: The Day the Rats Vetoed Congress)—and establish a tradition of formally summoning their wayward lawmakers to the people’s Town Meetings with the people’s agendas on the table (See, Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think, City Lights Books).

There are many overdue changes and reforms backed by large majorities of liberal and conservative voters to make Watchdog Groups a formidable force. One percent of the voters can change Congress, especially because the necessities of the People are widely and strongly supported by millions of voters.

Ralph Nader's latest book is Civic Self-Respect

Wow!  Americans need to decide how much they are willing to let this corporate power continue to take hold over our society.  Will we continue as a society to let big corporations make laws that put Americans in harm's way?  Continue to put profit over safety?  

These are just two questions that need to be thought hard about.  We the people do have power.  Educate yourself.  Take local action.  Call your local senator or representative.  Express your opinion.  Whatever that opinion may be.  Help shape society.