Divided Government
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

An electorate, comprising millions of voters, is smarter than any one of us. So with Senator Kerry close to President Bush in the polls, it is worth mentioning that America’s voters realize that the Republicans control the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Republicans are almost certain to keep control of the House in the next Congress. And while the Democrats stand a slim chance of winning control of the Senate in November, the Democrats are extremely unlikely to attain the 60 seats that are necessary to attain a working, filibuster-proof majority under the contemporary rules. So even if Mr. Kerry wins, he is likely to have a lot of difficulty moving his pro gram through a hostile Congress.
It may be that this prospect eases voters anxiety in the face of Mr. Kerry’s declared plan for a tax increase on the most economically productive Americans. It may be a hedge voters bear in mind as the contemplate Mr. Kerry’s plan to import Canada-style price controls on the pharmaceutical industry, thereby deterring the innovation that creates life-saving medicines. We may discover that divided government is a way for the voters to limit Mr. Kerry’s plans for imposing draconian environmental regulations that would make energy more expensive and slow economic growth.
And it is a caution against those who would interpret a potential Kerry victory as a mandate for his policies. There are a lot of voters who are skeptical of any new government plans and who figure that by installing a president from one party and a Congress from the other, they can create a gridlock that will decrease the likelihood of ambitious programs being enacted from Washington.
These columns have endorsed President Bush’s re-election, and we certainly don’t mean to sound defeatist. A Republican president and a Republican Congress is a better configuration for tax cutting and war-fighting, and it would be the best outcome of this election. But for those who are worried about the danger of a Kerry victory, it is worth remembering that the Congress is the branch whose powers are outlined in Article I of the Constitution. It has the power of the purse. And as the Republican Congress showed with welfare reform, capital gains tax cuts, and the Iraq Liberation Act during the Clinton presidency, the Congress can do a lot beyond merely blocking presidential initiatives, even when the president is from an opposing party. Something that the voters are no doubt factoring in as they weigh their choices.