Rep. Budget Reform

IF former senator Phil Gramm could have been in two places at once last June, he might have found a way to testify before a House committee on financial-services legislation. But he was traveling on business in Europe, and so he asked Jeb Hensarling, a former aide who is now a congressman, to deliver prepared remarks in his absence. “I tried to speak in an accent that the entire committee could understand,” jokes Hensarling, whose own drawl is only slightly less thick than Gramm’s.

Among conservatives, few senators have ever been as popular as Gramm-a hard-driving budget hawk who delivered principled leadership until he retired from public life. In 2002, the same year Gramm chose not to run for reelection, Hensarling was sent to Congress for the first time, from a district that starts in Dallas and sprawls eastward. Since then, he has taken on many of the issues that once motivated his mentor, most notably the crucial but often thankless job of promoting process reforms to rein in federal spending.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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IF former senator Phil Gramm could have been in two places at once last June, he might have found a way to testify before a House committee on financial-services legislation. But he was traveling on business in Europe, and so he asked Jeb Hensarling, a former aide who is now a congressman, to deliver prepared remarks in his absence. “I tried to speak in an accent that the entire committee could understand,” jokes Hensarling, whose own drawl is only slightly less thick than Gramm’s.

Among conservatives, few senators have ever been as popular as Gramm-a hard-driving budget hawk who delivered principled leadership until he retired from public life. In 2002, the same year Gramm chose not to run for reelection, Hensarling was sent to Congress for the first time, from a district that starts in Dallas and sprawls eastward. Since then, he has taken on many of the issues that once motivated his mentor, most notably the crucial but often thankless job of promoting process reforms to rein in federal spending.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.