Thomas Daschle: “no question more occupied the minds of our Founding Fathers than how to keep American democracy from devolving into…”

“no question more occupied the minds of our Founding Fathers than how to keep American democracy from devolving into despotism. The delicate and elaborate structure of our Government is designed not merely to represent the will of the American people but to prevent the concentration and abuse of power. To eliminate the prospects that tyranny could take hold, the Framers not only created a separation of equal powers, but they gave each branch authority over its peers. ``Unless these departments be so far connected and blended as to give each a constitutional control over the others,'' James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers, ``the degree of separation . . . essential to a free government, can never in practice be duly maintained.'' For our system to work, no part of Government can be free from scrutiny--not Congress, not the judiciary, and not the White House. Unfortunately, Congress seems to have abdicated its role in our system of checks and balances. Partisan loyalty is taking precedence over our constitutional responsibilities, and oversight has ground to a halt. There are few clearer examples than Congress' failure to investigate the decision to withhold the cost estimates for its controversial Medicare proposal.”