The senior Republican in Congress, C. W. “Bill” Young of Florida announced this week he will retire from the House at the age of 82. His career embodies much of what Congress has become and some of what’s wrong with it.
Young became the epitome of a career politician. Born in poor circumstances he moved from Pennsylvania to St. Petersburg, Fla., to enter the insurance business. But he didn’t stay long in it. At age 26, he became a staffer for Florida congressman Bill Cramer. At age 29 he was elected to the Florida state senate and a decade later to Cramer’s seat in Congress when it became vacant.
Politico credited him with having “broad power over military spending” during his many years as chairman of the defense subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, a.k.a “the House favor factory.” A prolific supporter of “earmarks,” the often secretive budget honey pots inserted into legislation, he helped tarnish the image of the Republican party as a party of fiscal probity during the George W. Bush administration.
Now that Young is retiring, the race to succeed him may remain a family affair. He has said he will support either his wife, Beverly, or his son Bill Young II, if they choose to run in his stead. “If my wife were elected to Congress, Congress would never be the same,” Young told a Florida TV station in 2010, referring to his exuberant spouse. “Billy would be a good member of Congress. He’s smart. He understands political issues — he understands them even better than I do on some occasions.”
The House was meant to be the branch of government closest to the people, but the powers of incumbency have increasingly left it in the control of career politicians. Young’s ability to bring pork home and to tout his accomplishments meant his district was never competitive for Democrats even though it has voted only once for a Republican for president in the last quarter century.
Young’s retirement indeed marks an end of a 44-year House career, but one that is far different from the ones envisioned by the Founding Fathers.