Big Problems Require Big Consensus

“Presidents come and go; Exxon doesn’t come and go.”

That was Lee Raymond, the longtime CEO of ExxonMobil. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to meet him and the remark stuck with me. In effect, he told me that the company didn’t concern itself much with the Washington cycle, which ran two to four years. At the time Exxon’s oldest well still operating was drilled during the Eisenhower administration. The wells they were drilling that day would still be pumping 50 years from now. They thought in half-centuries, not election cycles.

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That sums up the problem of governance in modern America. Our problems are long term. The congressional cycle is short term. And when you compound that by governing to please the fringe of each party, you guarantee that nothing durable will get done.

Last week I wrote an article entitled “We’re Still Here, And We’re Still Being Ignored.” In it I highlighted the fact that despite the growing polarization of our political parties, a majority of Americans actually agree on many of our most pressing problems. Despite this agreement, the parties govern when in power in allegiance to their bases and leave the rest of us unrepresented.

While that fact alone merits attention, it begs another, bigger question. When you govern from the fringes of the party, you govern without bipartisan commitment to policy. When you govern without bipartisan commitment to policy, you govern without a consensus that can endure. Inevitably, the succeeding administration or Congress will undo what you have done.

For small issues, this is the cost of governance by the majority. For large issues, it is about to become catastrophic. All of our large problems are long-term in nature. They don’t match, and can’t be solved, within the short duration of the congressional or presidential cycle. Think of climate change, our debt level, the coming depletion of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, the growing housing shortage, the cost of healthcare, and the coming AI revolution in the labor market. These are long term in nature. Solving them will require a long term, durable consensus.

When consensus is missing

We have all witnessed the futility of partisan governing.

In 2022 the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), meaning the climate legislation, was passed with zero Republican votes. Immediately upon taking office in 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing all agencies to immediately stop disbursing IRA funds. Although a federal judge blocked the order, the administration shifted tactics and resisted its implementation in other ways.

The Paris Accords provide a grotesque example in which Obama negotiated and signed the agreement, Trump one withdrew, Biden rejoined, and Trump two withdrew again. How much bigger a mess could we make of something than that?

Student loan forgiveness: Knowing he couldn’t get it done through Congress, Biden attempted this through executive action. The Supreme Court struck it down in 2023.

Affordable Care Act: The Senate passed the ACA with exactly 60 votes, not one to spare, and the House passed it 219-212 with zero Republican votes. Not a single member of the opposing party had a stake in its success. The perpetual effort to dismantle and degrade it is the price of that arithmetic.

When consensus holds

In contrast, where a consensus was found in Congress, policy has endured.

The CHIPS Act of 2022 passed the Senate 64-33, with 17 Republicans voting in favor, and the House 243-187, with 24 Republicans crossing over. It is intact today.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021 passed the Senate 69-30 and the House 228-206, with meaningful Republican support in both chambers. It is also largely intact today.

Neither was perfect but both have survived.

The Big Beautiful Bill that won’t be for long

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed entirely along partisan lines. Not a single Democrat supported it. This ensures that the next Democratic congress will overturn it or at least modify it materially.

Big things require big consensus

Imagine if this dysfunction had always been the case. It is possible that we would live in a world without the interstate highway system, NASA, or Social Security, or even clean air.

Because if not for the consensus of the time, none of them would exist today.

The Interstate Highway System was launched under Eisenhower, and a bipartisan consensus kept it funded and expanding for 35 years, across five presidencies.

The Clean Air Act was signed by Nixon in 1970. Carter strengthened it, and Bush Sr. expanded it significantly. Three decades of sustained bipartisan commitment produced measurable air quality improvements.

Social Security was created by Roosevelt in 1935, but it took the Greenspan Commission under Reagan - a deliberately bipartisan body - to rescue it from insolvency in 1983.

NASA and the Space Program: Eisenhower created NASA in 1958, Kennedy set the initial moon goal, Johnson funded it, Nixon claimed the victory. The program today continues across administrations of both colors.

The modern executive order

It has become somewhat of a tradition for new Presidents to sign executive orders “day one.” At the end of the day, this is not much more than showmanship. Without Congressional approval, it is almost certain that many of them will simply be overturned by the next President. In fact, this is what we have seen.

The pattern since Obama is relentless.

Obama created DACA; Trump one rescinded it; Biden restored it; Trump two is dismantling it again through the courts.

Trump one created Schedule F, making it easier to fire civil servants; Biden revoked it; Trump two reinstated it.

Biden raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour; Trump two reversed it.

On his first day in office, Trump revoked 78 executive orders issued by Biden - on climate, immigration, labor, and health.

None of this is governance - you couldn’t run any public company, not even a McDonald’s franchise, this way. It is a perpetual motion machine that produces nothing but instability, and the American people pay the price every time the wheel turns.

The lesson is simple

Exxon drills wells that will pump for 50 years because it has to. It cannot afford the luxury of reversing itself every four years. Our government does not face that discipline, and so it does reverse itself, over and over, on the problems that matter most.

The vote tallies tell the story plainly. The IRA passed 51-50. The CHIPS Act passed 64-33. The Infrastructure Act passed 69-30. The first is under assault. The latter two survive. Consensus is not just good politics. It is the only way a democracy solves a problem that outlasts any single administration.

Problems just get bigger

Each of the examples I listed above is substantial, generational in nature, and only getting larger. None will be solved with legislation designed by and for the fringe of either party. Enduring solutions sufficient to actually address the magnitude of the challenge will require a solution driven from the middle and passed with bipartisan consensus.

Add to this the reputational damage

And finally, there is another cost to all this wasted energy. And that is the reputation of the U.S. Nearly 200 countries have remained committed to the Paris Accords while we have come and gone four times. Trump renegotiated NAFTA in his first term and then violated the renegotiated version with unilateral tariffs in his second term. Similarly, he withdrew from the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO. Biden rejoined, Trump withdrew a second time, and I have no doubt that the next Democratic administration will rejoin them all yet again.

Anyone embarrassed yet?

The Wisdom of Raymond

Raymond was right about Exxon. He could just as easily have been describing what good government looks like. The wells we drill today will still be pumping 50 years from now. So will the problems we refuse to solve together.