GOP Must Focus On Congress’s Failure To Deliver Trump Mandate

In March of 2010, Democrats passed Obamacare. Not because it was a brilliant policy — 15 years later the program is about to fail unless the government subsidizes it — but because Democrats had a majority in both the House and Senate and were willing to actually use it to push their agenda.

How are Republicans using their time in the majority? Fighting each other instead of fighting for the American people.

For the past month, Republicans have been fighting one another over whatever the outrage of the day is — Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and now, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Each week it feels like a new circular firing squad, and each week that Republicans fight each other is another week in which Republican leadership gets to skate by having not done anything.

But with less than a year left until the midterms, Republicans are squandering their majority despite a host of issues that could use addressing.

Start with Obamacare, for example. Democrats finally agreed to end the Democrat-led government shutdown after they swept some off-year elections. Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised Democrats that he would hold a vote on dramatically increasing the Obamacare subsidies. The vote can be held, but Republicans must use their majority to vote no for a host of reasons, not least of which is the fact that, without the government subsidizing the program, it likely fails. As Christopher Jacobs wrote in these pages, a bailout for Obamacare “would also contain taxpayer funding for plans that cover abortion and transgender medical interventions many Americans find objectionable.”

In the meantime, Republicans should be figuring out other ways to get us out of this mess: What can Congress do to lower costs for Americans seeking health care in a way that doesn’t require the government to intervene? They’ve had 15 years to think on this. Let’s see something.

Another thing Republicans could and should do is pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. It’s basic legislation that would require prospective voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. Trump, for his part, did try to implement the same policy via an executive order, but a federal judge ruled the order unconstitutional, arguing Trump “lacks the authority to direct such changes.”

Of course, a bump in the road as such would not be a big deal if Republicans — in the majority of Congress — acted like they had the majority.

Republicans should also impeach activist judges who are actively usurping the authority of the executive. Since Trump took office, unelected, inferior court judges have issued dozens of nationwide injunctions and temporary restraining orders to thwart the president’s mandate. For example, when Trump tried to end a taxpayer-funded program to bankroll a transgender opera in Colombia — as pointed out in these pages by Mark Davis — an unelected, inferior court judge blocked him.

These sorts of usurpations piqued the interest of Sen. Chuck Grassley, who introduced the Judicial Relief Clarification Act of 2025. The legislation would, as described by Grassley’s office, “limit district courts to resolving the cases only between the parties before them.” Despite having a majority in the Senate and House, the legislation has still not been brought for a vote — and yes, lower court judges are still trying to thwart Trump’s agenda.

Let’s not forget the lack of Senate confirmation for Trump appointees. The Washington Post has a tracker showing that at this point in their terms Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden all had more Senate confirmations than Trump does.

Or take all the cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). All that work identifying waste, fraud, and abuse is entirely meaningless if Congress doesn’t codify the cuts and actually rein in spending. As The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood observed earlier in the year, “While many Republicans have been quick to glom onto DOGE and profess support for its work, few seem to be interested in actually stopping the wasteful spending that’s plagued the federal government for years.”

When Sen. Rand Paul introduced a measure to slash federal spending by $1.5 trillion, Republicans in the Senate sided with Democrats to defeat the amendment 76-24, as reported by Fleetwood.

In sum, the GOP-led Congress has failed both to put forward, defend, and enact a governing agenda in line with Trump’s campaign platform. Mired in its “chronic inability to follow its own appropriations process,” the legislative branch’s reliance on omnibus bills and continuing resolutions, along with its inability or unwillingness to craft marketable conservative legislation on many pressing issues, is disqualifying.

Perhaps this inaction is why Congress’s approval rating is only at 15 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll.

While a large cohort of the right is busy chasing clout by offering their opinions on controversies that pale in comparison to what’s at stake, the clock is ticking. We need a united base pushing GOP leaders like Speaker Mike Johnson and Sen. Majority Leader John Thune to start governing like they won. And the more pressure and emphasis we place on trivial, the less pressure we place on leadership to lead.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2