The recent announcement by James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that he would not seek re-election in 2020 sparked new worries among the GOP that retaking the House in 2020 might be nearly impossible.  Although Sensenbrenner's district should be "safe" (as should about half of the more than a dozen seats in districts where Republicans are retiring), it never helps to lose an incumbent. That said, in 2020, the control of the House may be well near irrelevant. Over time, the House has had one major constitutional duty: the budget.  All spending and taxation bills must originate in the House.  But in all likelihood, the decline of the House started in 1995, when the newly elected Republican Congress under Newt Gingrich caved in to media pressure to give Bill Clinton his bloated budget.  Since then, no House has even attempted to control the deficits or the debt.  For eight years under George W. Bush, the rationale was to fund...(Read Full Post)