Giving Congress Its Due

Although the presidency is the focal point for media coverage of the U.S. government, Congress is by far the most important and most powerful of our constitutional institutions. All taxing and spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives; only Congress can raise armies; and it is Congress that creates the Federal Reserve, which governs U.S. monetary policy. Besides its trivial function as a trial court, the Supreme Court would have little function and would hear no appeals from the state supreme courts, nor would there be any federal lower courts, except for congressional legislation. For all the glamour of the White House, it's Capitol Hill that creates and sustains the federal government....