Each year, Gallup asks Americans their opinions of 16 different institutions, ranging from small business to the U.S. Supreme Court to television news. And every year, there's one institution that ranks last in public trust: the U.S. Congress. In the most recent poll, just 8% of Americans said they trusted Congress in its ability to represent the people.
The crux of the problem is that Congress has lost sight of what responsibilities are its own and what are not. The U.S. Constitution outlines the powers of Congress in Article 1, Section 8, which include taxing, borrowing, regulating commerce, coining money, declaring war, supporting the military, making laws necessary to carry out these powers, and establishing post offices, among other powers.
Notably absent from that list is the power to rule on the nation's most divisive social issues, like abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, or gun control, yet many lawmakers, and leaders in both parties, have made these issues their primary job, using them to rally their bases, divide voters, and, above all, raise money.
For trust to be restored, Congress must become fiscally responsible and return to its role as a responsible oversight of the executive branch. Congress is not constitutionally prohibited from legislating on divisive issues, but it has truly squandered that power. Congress should leave these issues where they belong: to the states.
Our Founding Fathers had great foresight about the complexities of governing a nation as large and diverse as ours. James Madison, often called the Father of the Constitution, wrote, “The powers delegated to the Federal Government by the proposed Constitution are few and limited; those left to the State governments are many and uncertain.”
They understood that government is most effective when it is closest to the people and best responsive to the needs, beliefs and desires of the people. They understood this at a time when there were roughly a quarter of today's states with competing visions – 13 compared to today's 50. Their vision is more important today than ever before.
Instead, representatives from the most progressive and most conservative districts are wasting their precious time fighting over issues on which our deeply divided country can never agree and on which Congress will probably never even vote, and they are doing so at the expense of their actual constitutional obligations.
The national debt, a good barometer of Congress's ability to manage the budget, is now over $35 trillion and is growing by $1 trillion roughly every 100 days. This is the most predictable crisis in American history, and one for which every American will have to pay the price if Congress fails to come up with a solution.
The solutions already exist, including difficult but necessary reforms to benefits like Social Security and Medicare. The sooner Congress acts, the less painful and disruptive those solutions will be. If Congress delays acting until the last minute, millions of people could lose vital benefits.
This crisis moment will come sooner than many think: the Social Security Trust Fund is scheduled to fail in 2035 and Medicare in 2036, which could push a quarter of older Americans into poverty and leave millions without health care benefits.
Abortion and gay rights are important issues, but Congress has squandered the public's trust and proven unable to handle these sensitive issues responsibly.
Party leaders are hesitant to give up on these issues, but there is an alternative: What America needs in 2026 is a new crop of independent-minded candidates who will refocus the U.S. Congress on its actual constitutional duties. In an era when House majorities are barely slim, it won’t take many candidates to act as a powerful group that can redirect and refocus Congress on the issues that matter most.
Americans would be better served by candidates who, as the Founding Fathers intended, leave social problems that don't have viable solutions at the federal level up to the states. If this could happen, perhaps Congress could solve the problems it is tasked with solving and regain the public's trust.
Roger Hutson is co-chair of No Labels Colorado, a board member of Colorado Concern, and CEO of HRM Resources IV, LLC.
Subscribe to Sound Off to receive a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit it online or review the guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
First published: