John Yarmuth: “You know, there's another element to this whole question, a balance of powers, and it really is reflected in the debate…”

“You know, there's another element to this whole question, a balance of powers, and it really is reflected in the debate over the SCHIP program. Because while we debate, on the one hand, the actual legislative powers and how we might enforce those through the courts and so forth, there's another competition going on, and it's the competition that goes on in the media and in the public dialogue. And here is where there is an inherent advantage for the executive branch. And I think part of the reason why, over the last few decades, the executive branch has been able to accumulate far more power than the Constitution and the Founding Fathers envisioned was because it is much easier for the President of the United States to use the bully pulpit, as we call it, and dominate time and the news media and the television, and it's much harder for the Congress to do that since we are a body comprising 535 men and women.”