Though not normally in the “Republican leadership is the problem” camp, I do join Brother Geraghty and others in wondering where all those promised vetoes have gone? When Republicans took the Senate in 2014, we imagined that Congress would be sending one bill after another to the president’s desk — not with the idea of overriding a veto — but simply to lay down markers about the kinds of reforms the Republican Party favors.

They did so on Obamacare and the Keystone pipeline. Good. The latter issue continues to cause heartburn for Hillary Clinton.

Repeal of the medical device tax included in Obamacare also passed.

There are many more that could be sent to the president’s desk: A good alternative to Obamacare. A reform demanding, for example, that no new federal regulations be passed without a cost/benefit report submitted to Congress first; repeal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (part of Dodd/Frank) because it is unconstitutionally unaccountable to Congress and receives funding directly from the Federal Reserve; tax reform and simplification; defunding of Planned Parenthood; reopening Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste disposal; reversing the shrinkage of the U.S. military.

The leadership got behind trade promotion authority, which is fine. Trade creates prosperity and to the degree Democrats can be brought along, good. Fast track authority will help not just this president, but the next one.

But the Transportation bill causes the hairs on the back my neck to stand up. There’s room for a lot of pork in those behemoths. As for attaching the Ex/Im bank, we’ve come a long way from the days when most Republicans used to support these sops to business. That has changed — but not enough. The leadership may believe that too many Republican senators are for it to block it permanently. Thirteen Republican senators voted for it, along with all the Democrats.

Creative minds in the Capitol should be dreaming up more and more bills to pass that are good policy and popular. Some seem to think that Republicans must prove that they can govern. They can’t — not with this president. They should be all about showing how they’d govern if they could. Above all, they must devote every strategy possible to prevent the disastrous Iran deal. Let Senator Tom Cotton lead the charge. No one who sees him doubts that Republicans deserve to hold the reins of power.