Rep. Sean Casten

It was where all the people were.

It was where all the budget was.

Congress is now less than one half of 1% of the total federal budget.

Because every time we identify a problem, we basically create an executive branch agency to fix it.

And we gradually make ourselves weaker and weaker.

And I think other than...

other than the War Powers Act, I'm hard pressed to think of a time where Congress took power back from the other agencies or the other branches.

But I can think of lots of times starting with Marbury versus Madison, where the judicial branch took power from the legislative branch, lots of times where the executive has taken power from legislative.

And I think we're vastly overdue.

If we still believe that it's important to have a government with three co-equal branches, we gotta be a little more equal.

And I think we need to sort of push for some structural reforms.

And while I'm not naive about how long it's going to take, what other job could I possibly get where I could actually have a role in fixing that?

When you say a bribery scandal involving an Illinois senator, I have to ask which one you're referring to.

So, number one, I think you are spot on that there are so many echoes, both to the Reconstruction era and the 20s.

And I think trying to not repeat the mistakes of Reconstruction, but also to recognize like we, I think we appropriately lionized Teddy Roosevelt, because he was someone who came in and said,

I'm not going to burn the institutions down, but I'm not going to praise them as being perfect either.

We have to make some significant structural reforms to fix this.

And it's the whole trust busting era.

I think that arguably is what set us up for such a booming century.

I think if you look at the reforms we've made over time, everything we're really proud of in our history has made democracy more inclusive.