With the national debt at $33 trillion and counting, and the economy on a slow-growth trajectory, economic policy-making should be at a premium on Capitol Hill. Yet Republicans are losing another lawmaker who’s serious about such things, after North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry said Tuesday he won’t run for re-election next year.
Mr. McHenry’s most famous role was spending three weeks as interim Speaker, after the GOP mutiny that ousted Kevin McCarthy. It was a silly interlude, but Mr. McHenry presided ably, in his trademark bow tie. His statement Tuesday didn’t give a specific reason for stepping aside in 2024, other than that there’s “a season for everything.” He even tried to tamp down pessimism.
“There has been a great deal of handwringing and ink spilled about the future of this institution because some — like me — have decided to leave. Those concerns are exaggerated,” Mr. McHenry wrote. “Whether it’s 1974, 1994, or 2010, we’ve seen the House evolve over time. Evolutions are often lumpy and disjointed, but at each stage, new leaders emerge. There are many smart and capable members who remain, and others are on their way. I’m confident the House is in good hands.”
In any case, Republican intellectual capital on economics is in need of renewal on Capitol Hill, and Mr. McHenry is only the latest departure. The three Ways and Means chairmen — Dave Camp, Paul Ryan and Kevin Brady — who laid the groundwork for the 2017 tax reform are gone. In the Senate, Pat Toomey’s retirement this year left a void on economic thinking that still hasn’t been filled.
Mr. McHenry was first elected in 2004, and one perspective is that he’s served his sentence as a conservative in Washington and is now eligible for parole. Yet he’s 48 years old, and he took over the gavel on the Financial Services Committee only this year. It’s hard not to wonder whether in an alternative universe, one with a less-dysfunctional House GOP conference, Mr. McHenry might stay to work on the next generation of conservative policy.
But is Congress no longer a place for serious people and instead mainly a venue for loudmouths who want to burnish their media brand? Readers can wish the best to Mr. McHenry and his family, while continuing to worry about the trend of smart conservatives who decide their options are better elsewhere.
