REINS Act: Hogtie the Executive Branch!

When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives last January, Democrats put their faith in the boomerang theory of politics—any newly ascendant party overreaches and alienates the moderates who elected them. So far, though, the GOP is proving a good deal smarter than some expected. Republican policies may be as radical as Democrats say, but they're cloaked in seductive rhetoric. And some are becoming law.

In Wisconsin and Ohio, Republican governors have used budget deficits as a justification for stripping public unions of collective bargaining rights. On Capitol Hill, 32 Republican senators have joined with an equal number of Democrats to pressure President Barack Obama into leading a bipartisan initiative to slash the nation's debt. And now, just as the disaster in Japan is forcing the world to reconsider the safety of nuclear energy, a new conservative idea is rising to the top of the Republican agenda in Washington—one that could thwart federal regulation of atomic power and just about any other industrial activity.