Staffers with us. I realize that for many of you, there assess recess period is a ray tint to get caught up on your backlog, schedule overdue doctor appointments, get home from work at a reasonable hour and prep for what is happening next week. Your work is essential and we are grateful for you taking the time too be here. The article one initiative is committed to important work and its worthy of your attention. Our purpose us to provide a nationwide, nonpartisan opportunity to discuss congress as an institution. We believe that now more than ever we must refocus on the founders ended design for the intended design for the legislative branch. Our aim is to pursue ideas and innovations to restore congress to its rightful responsibilities, which are essential to our Constitutional Order and protection of personal liberties. Today were happy to be hosting the great Panel Discussion of professor david schoenbrods new book, dc confidential. Inside the five tricks to washington. The outset i note that the book features forward by going to governor howard dean and senator mike lee. And now let me quickly introduce our panel. All three of them are very distinguished and accomplished is the shortened version professor schoenbrod is a trusty professor of law at new York Law School and frequently considered to editor badge over wall street journal, the New York Times and other publications. Has an undergreat degree in mathematics from trail, poet graduate dig few economics from oxford and a law degree. And adam white is an adjunct professor the Antonin Scalia law school himself notable writing has been published in men places is at am dam jury white. Com. He received the undergraduate the university of iowa and this jd cum laude at harvard law school. And then corporaller Congress Mark voss who is the vicepresident for the u. S. Association of formermers of congress. Congressman frost served 26 years and had many leadership positions representing the dallasfort worth area. He is the author of book with former congressman tom davis the partisan divide, congress in crisis. He has a law degree from georgetown university. Before i turn it over to david i just want to note for all of you that following the panelist remarks well have amp time for question and answer so be thinking about your questions youd like to ask our panelists. With that, david, the floor is yours. Well, thank you, nate, and thanks to the federal society for sponsors this event and thank you as well to representative frost and professor white for participating in this panel. I very much look forward to the discussion with all of you. When i was a little boy, my grandfather taught me to recite the get tis gettysburg address. We here hively resolve that these dead shall not thats died in vain, that this nation will have a firth before freedom and government of the people, by the people, for the people, shat nothing perish from the earth. With these word lincoln honored those who died in the civil war, in teaching those words to me, my grandfather honored old soldier, my father, who was laying wounded in france. Lincoln could claim that america already had government by the people because whereas in england tv ogettysburg address, most people cooperate vote because of a Property Ownership qualification. Almost every state has abolished it. At that time africanamericans and women could not vote in the united states, but he was calling for a new birth of freedom that ultimately resulted in their having the vote. When i was young man i was proud to play a small part in this peoples government. That was only in 1960s, and at that time in american history, polls showed that 76 of the vetters trusted the government the vote trusted the government to do the right thing just about always if not always. Today that number is 19 . An appalling fall in our belief in the government. In washington, does deserve this distrust for reason as that began in the 1960s. Previously trust was built on members of Congress Taking responsibility for the consequences of key decisions. In other words, they took credit for the benefits of their decisions and also plame blame for the burdens imposed by the decisions and this would tend to align the interests of legislators and their constituents. Then in the late 1960s, legislators of both parties began to legislate in new ways that shifted blame away from them and thereby really undermineed government of, by and for the people. Blame shifting began innocent live enough. By the mid1960s, we saw our government. As working wonders. I had worked wonders. Got us through the great depression, won world war ii, inscripted dish invented the atomic book,m the highway system. We had the strongest economy in the world by far. It was a great government and so necessary live we wanted necessarily we want it to do more, clean up the environment, but also understandably we wanted this government to do so without imposing a lot of burdens on us, and also understandably, members of congress wanted to satisfy us. And that is what they set out to do. And in the Clean Air Act of 1970 congress promised healthy air without heavy burdens. And the what they convinced themselves would deliver this was something called technology forcing. The idea was that if congress set a definite deadline for producing clean air, that would forestry would force industries to deliver without costing too much and in the sense the previous year, 1969, america landed a man on the moon and Congress Said, members said and is explicitly said if they could land the man on the moon they would make the air healthy on earth. Both parties sign on. Both parties voted gem whelmingly for the Clean Air Act, but technology forcing did not work as was hoped. For example, to make the middle east the deadline, for producing healthy air in southern california, would have required taking threequarters of the cars off the road and that wasnt going to happen. So it began to happen was that members members of congress on bite sides the eye aisle started to privately lobby epa not item pose the heavy burdens and epa by and large complied, and then congress had the temerity to blame the epa for that cleaning up the air on time. Sound familiar . I feel i might have missed a slide here. I think were yep, its fine. Okay. So once congress began this new way of legislating, there was no going back because the ability to shift blame for bad consequences had changed the personal incentives of members of congress. They could legislate any n ways that let them make rosy promises regardless of the impact constituents in the cleanary act they but 940 commands for the epa to regulate. And those are extra judicially enforceable ponds, and they also rote the commands in ways that are complicated to obscure their responsibility for consequences. So we have fabulously complicated system for regulating air pollution, this is from Eugene MccarthysBarack Obamas epa administrator, each secretarior has 27 rules the governor even piece of equipment and you have to be a neuroscience to figure it out. Thats the Clean Air Act today. And beyond that, theres no personal incentive on the part of members of congress to update it to simply identify it to make it make more sense, because all the blame is either shifted to the epa or the states. So, in fact, the Clean Air Act has not been amended since 19 90. Over a quarter century ago. Even throw there are mutter and smarter ways to clean up the air. Its left as it. Im plating both parties. Not one or the another. Both. So we went from a situation where the interests of constituents and legislators was aligned to one where their interests in conflict. So to be able to say again and again im against pollution killing children the same ones say im against regulation killing jobs. This is schizophrenia, not legislation. And i witnessed this schizophrenia up close because as a lawyer for the National ResourcesDefense Council i brought the cases to get lead out of gasoline and as a result of this mess, approximately 50,000 of my clients died. And it was going through that experience that drove me out of Environmental Advocacy and into academia because i wanted to furring out what the heck is going on. What i discovered comes down to one thing, members of congress use five key tricks to shift blame. Now, voters know that politicians are tricksters, or todays politics are tricksters. So how does congress its for the same reason that musicians can sing to pull rabbits out of hat. People dont see the salute of hand. My book bit rei feeling the sleight of hand and these tricks come through a new system of legislating, for enacting laws and spending programs, that legislatorsors and of both parties they began to use them in the late 1960s and and early 1970s. They thats the basic thesis of the book. Want to go through the five tricks. One trick is the regulation trick. Previously congress had sometimes adopted rules and regulations themselves, and that gave members of Congress Credit for the benefits of the regulation and blame for the burdens. They also sometimes said to an agency, heres a problem, solve it. That gave the credit and the blame to the agency. But what happened with the regulation trick, which began whiff Clean Air Act of 1970, congress find way to take credit for the benefits but shift blame for the burdens. And so, the way they do this basically is they enact statutes that grant very specifically stated rights so congress could say, gave you this, i give you this right. But they give the job of imposing the adulties needed to deliver the duties needed to deliver on the right to the agency so the agency gets the blame for the burdens. So they shift the blame to the agencies. Thats the sleight of hand. Another trick is the money trick. It began innocently enough in the later 1960s. Previously congress generally raised the revenue needed to pay for the things that promised, like tax cuts of various social programs that people liked. Now, occasionally there were big deficitted, like during the great depression, during wars, but congress usually reversed course and tended to pay things up a. In later 1960s congress began on a course of systematically and large scale running deficits in a way that deficits with current policy just keep going up interest the sky. But what this does is it allows congress to shift the blame for the burdens needed to pay for these goodies to their successors in office. So theyre kicking the can down the road also people call it. The sleight of hand is that the Congress Makes the benefits tangible and concrete. So youll get a let every year saying your Social Security benefits are going to be this much money down to the dollar. What about the cost of all these things in they hide that. They hide that. So, its they take credit for the good stuff, avoid blame for the bad stuff. Both parties. Federal mandate trick. Previously before the late 1960s, congress had required states to honor Constitutional Rights and to meet basic conditions when they accepted federal grants. If a state took a federal grant to build a highway it couldnt use crumby concrete. Thats not a problem. So that way members of congress, could take credit for the highway and had to take blame for raising the money to give the grant to state. With the federal mandate trick, members of Congress Found a way to take credit and shift blame to state officials and what happens is that the congress invites the states out to dipper and leaves them to pay for the bill. Now, the Clean Air Act illustrates this yet begin. Congress not the credit for clean air but it imposed upon the states the burdens, the job of im posing the duties and to do the cleanup. Credit for congress. Blame on governors and state legislator. What is the sleigh of hand . States must dictate or use their federal highway grants. For any gov to give up a highway grant, is political suicide. So, you might ask yourself the question, will, wouldnt it by political suicide for members of congress to vote far provision that says that were going to threaten to take away a states highway grant . Well, the sleight of hand is this. Congress doesnt vote on that stuff. Of the dozens and dozens of roll call votes on the clear aint eight, nary a one was on punish thing states. So congress washes it hand of blame. Debt guarantee trick. Congress previously loan guaranteed the payment of some private debts like, for example, the federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guarantees of the small diet deposits in bank. Initially for deposits up to 2,500. The reason for that low limit was so that bigger deposits, bigger diet depositors would know their money was at risk which would mean you wouldnt put your money in a bank that was doing risky lending or was overleveraged. Which would tend to keep that bank safe. But starting in the late 1960s, congress began to guarantee the debt all the debts big and small of the too big to fail banks. That let these banks borrow money on the cheap because they were backed by the federal guarantee, even though they were engaging in risky lending operations and leveraging higher and higher and higher borrowing more and money which makes repaying debts questionable. And this exploded upwardded the profits of the too big to sale institutions in good times. But in bad times it led to financial crisis that caused such misery in 2008. Bills people lost their homes also you all know, and lost their jobs and retirement savings. Very sad. So, the public necessarily got angry about it. So we got doddfrank. Let me tell you, the debt guarantee trick continues under dodd frank. Still going on. So, what is the sleight of hand . The sleight of hadnt is this. Congress pretends the government is not guarantees these debts but you look the interest rated in bond market, you know theyre guaranteeing the debts. The lender the borrowers know these debts are guaranteed. Now, in Congress Plays tricked even when it comes to war. During the countrys first 160 years, we never went to war without Congress Taking responsibility either by declaring war or more commonly by approving the war by statute. Then in 1950 president truman put the troops into korea saying it was a u. N. Approved peace action. Some peace action. 33,000 americans died. Then we have vietnam and cambodia and all of that. The public got very angry and that forced congress to pass the war powers resolution which in theory forces the president to come to come and get congress to vote on the hostilities. Except theres a loophole and the loophole allowed mannoses congress to collude to avoid voting on troops being involved in combat if its controversial. For example, libya. Members of Congress Went to libya and good into libya and get rid of that gadhafi guy, which he did, and then they criticized obama for not obeying the war powers. So we end up in wars where we havent looked into and debated as a country what makes sense. And sleight of hand here is congress can pretend to want to be responsible because they have war powers resolution and blame the president for disobeying it. This mean nod matter how the war comes out, if its popular the members of congress can mark in the victory parade and if unpopular they put the entire blame on the president. Now, the president s have been in on the tricks, too. The war power the president gets to treat the army, his army and on the other tricked president s take credit and shift blame. You can even say the president is the trickster in chief. Im talking about president s of both parties here. So what can we do . My key advice is this. Dont hate the players. Hate the game. Individual legislators are stuck. If any one legislator, any one party gift gives up the tricks they risk losing to the other side. So what we need to do is change the rules of the game and that would happen to return the people to power, making the government by and for the people. Now, the congress and the president could have a statute. The money trick. Think about the truth in lending act. It makes its crime for a lender like a bank to lend you money without giving you a piece of paper that states exactly how much youre going to have to pay every month to pay off the loan. Well, lets apply the same thing to congress. Under the honest deal act. Here we would get a piece of paper that envelope that that the letter that tells you hutch your Social Security would be . There should be a letter in there saying, well,ing for government to make ends meet in the long run, this is how much per year the average family will have to pay either in termed 0 tax increases or spending cuts. And by the way, this is how much that figure has been increased or decreased during the last congress, and and if we adopt start levying thattenthat expene on the public now, this is it will be that much greater down the road and tells the verdict it will be a terrible future for the children and a terrible medicare and Social Security. That would put the blame where it should be. Not to beat up on members of congress but to help congress be hospital with us and make us honest with ourselves whether we want these somethings we keep demanding from the government. As to how the government is responding, dont have prescriptions on that. I just think i ought to be decided be elected officials who can no longer keep their constitutes in the dark and he honest deal act has a way of dealing with the other tricks, and all of this is laid out on the web site for my book, its www. Dcconfidential. Org and if you look the tab, how to get an honest de, was the summary of the act right there. And then on the right, there some online gamed that are fun that will explain to you exactly how the tricks work, but better yet, buy the book, its 3 a trick. So, i think we can get this honest deal act passed, i think not any optimistic moments. Its a statute, not a constitutional amendment. Its about honesty, not left versus right which is why howard dean and mike lee of supportive of the book. The key thing is thi