Who Will Save the Political System?

This is part of a series discussing the State of the Union. Click here to read Part 1. Click here to read Part 2.

President Obama is also right about the breakdown of congressional institutions.

This breakdown will be as much a problem for a hypothetical President Romney in 2013 as it was for President Obama in 2011.

A President Romney will want to repeal the tax increases embedded in the Affordable Care Act. He'll want to reduce the ACA's Medicaid burden on the states. He'll want to extend the Bush tax cuts. He'll have many other changes in mind as well. And he'll discover that 41 Democratic senators can defeat any bill and that any 1 senator, Democratic or Republican, can deny his nominees a vote.

This last-days-of-the-Polish-commonwealth scenario is destructive of any successful governance, by any president. President Obama correctly called it out, and the year before an uncertain election would be a good time to make changes. The administration you save may be your own.

—MORE TO COME—