The Republican party was essentially out of power in both houses of Congress from 1932 until 1994, with brief control in small stints here and there.
When Reagan said "...government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem", it was taken as gospel by the Republican party. I mean, Reagan stomped Carter and returned the Senate to Republican hands, which was a pretty big thing
It's why the Republican party essentially has no desire to govern by compromise, and continues passing bills to repeal the ACA when they are guaranteed to fail. It's also why they sign loyalty oaths to individuals like Grover Norquist, who wants to shrink government down so that it can fit in a bathtub, and then be drowned. If government is the problem, then why try to make it work? Let's just kill it and privatize everything.
Of course, even when Reagan said "...government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem", the elipses leave out a pretty important qualifier:
"In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem". In essence, government can do things, y'all. And if you honestly look at Reagan's administration, it used government for things like, uh, the government is used for, uh, everywhere on the planet.
So, here we are. Democrats, the evil socialist communists that they are, will discuss spending cuts and tax increases, but Republicans are verboten from even discussing the raising of taxes, otherwise ol' Grover gets upset, screams of RINO! are lobbed far and wide, and then...a primary challenge from the right.
You can see it here:
https://youtu.be/WKzGZj32LYc
And I mean, what's the point of getting elected to a safe, gerrymandered district if you're just going to lose the primary to some used car salesman who knows all the right conjuring words?
So, a little history and context explains why Congress is basically useless, and continues delegating power to the Executive Branch, and then whining about it later like babies.
Ultimately, Congressmen love it. Show up to work, get all sorts of nice socialist benefits paid by taxpayers, get prestige and establish contacts for a lucrative post-political career in lobbying, and basically just complain about the Executive branch while doing essentially nothing.
Great work, if you can get it.