Left to his own devices, Rep. Brendan Boyle would rather talk sports.

But the six-term congressman from Philadelphia thought it more appropriate to give a little history lesson and answer questions about politics and his political future at the Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon on Monday in Harrisburg.

Boyle, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, drew comparisons between life today and that of 100 years ago following the end of World War I.

“The United States decided to pull within itself, and it saw the rise of three, powerful, and dangerous “isms” – Nativism, Protectionism, and Isolationism,” he said. “I would contend that all three of these “isms,” in some shape or form, are back in front of us again in our time.”

He spoke about immigration, noting that the early 20th century was “the greatest era in terms of high immigration to this country that we’ve ever seen. And in the early 1920, you suddenly saw a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and the rebirth of the KKK. Ultimately, the Klan would fold in many ways. It was actually a racket to personally line the pockets of those who ran it and, eventually, the anti-immigrant fervor would die down.”

Boyle then moved onto protectionism and as the U.S. decided to look inward, it decided to raise revenue through high tariffs. “Sure enough, the Great Depression began in 1929 and one of the root causes were those high tariffs.”

And he shared the story about Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who defeated a committed isolationist for the 1952 GOP presidential nomination. A major reason was that Eisenhower felt strongly that the world was at its best if the U.S. “played the role of leader of the free world,” said Boyle. “In retrospect, when it came to the idea that the U.S. led the free world, that the U.S. was the leader of the transatlantic alliance, there was absolutely no dispute or doubt whatsoever. That began to change in our politics about a decade ago.

“All three ‘isms’ that I mentioned began to rise again,” he continued. “We have now seen a challenge for the first time in the post-World War II era of this consensus that the United States actually needs from and benefits from NATO, that we need allies and partners. I don’t think that that is going to go away once the current occupant of the White House retires. I think this is an issue that we will continue to have to confront, and all Americans, whether Democrat or Republican, need to decide and think carefully about where we stand and how we want America’s future to be.”

Boyle has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration and the capitulation of Republicans in Congress as the third branch of government to the president’s wishes.

“It’s so contrary to our system of government,” said Boyle. “Madison and Hamilton envisioned that in Article One, the Congress would jealously guard its powers, but instead, the Republican leaders of the House and Senate, and there’s no other way to say it, are just so afraid of Donald Trump and his influence in Republican primaries, that they have just completely abrogated their responsibility, especially in certain core areas of congressional control, such as tariffs and such as our ability to vote to wage war or not. So it breaks my heart, but I will tell you that come after November, if Democrats, if we win back the majority, we will actually go back to what has always been the norm and Congress reasserting itself in these core areas.”

Boyle is rumored to be considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2028 and a challenge to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman

When asked about that possibility, he paused and shared some of his thought process.

“If Democrats were to win the majority this November, then I would become the chairman of the Budget Committee,” he said. “When I first got to the Congress a dozen years ago, Paul Ryan was the chair of the House Budget Committee. It has an incredibly August history in recent times. People like, in addition to Paul Ryan, John Kasich, Leon Panetta, William Gray. It’s an incredibly important position. At the same time, there may be this opportunity in 2028, and I might have said one or two things that are not necessarily complimentary of one of our two senators.

“I’m certainly not going to make a decision about any future election cycle before I’ve gone through the current one, I know from being a sports fan for too long that if you look two games ahead, you end up stubbing your toe and losing the next game in front of you. But to be candid, that would be a very tough decision, and it’s one that that I will probably sit down and at some point next spring make a decision, but one way or the other, I feel very grateful and blessed to even be in the sort of situation that I am to have those as possibilities.”

Boyle was questioned about his vote against amendment that would cut $3.3 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Israel. He was the lone House Democrat from Pennsylvania to vote against the amendment but does not view the support of the Jewish state as an issue in terms of the Democratic Party alone.

“There has been a remarkable shift in terms of public opinion on the situation in the Middle East, and then specifically about the relationship between the United States and Israel. Among younger people, a majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans had this view of Israel. I find that to be a tragedy. I have always been a strong supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship. I do sense, however, that for many Americans they’re conflating their view of Israel to this specific Israeli government and Benjamin Netanyahu and (Bezalel) Smotrich and (Itamar) Ben-Gvir.

“Now we will see, as we know in the United States, not all governments last, and there are elections. They’ll be facing an election in a couple months, and we’ll see what that election brings us. But there’s no question there has been a sea change on this issue in terms of U.S. public opinion and coming up with what our relationship will look like moving forward.”

When asked about Trump’s SAVE America Act and the president’s comments about non-citizens voting, Boyle did not pull punches.

“I don’t know how many times members of the media and academics have to look into this and show that the idea of voter fraud widespread is a myth,” he said. “This has been demonstrated time after time after time. What you would have to believe is that in 2020, the election in which he was still in the White House, somehow something nefarious happened that cost him the election.

“The reality is, Trump lost the 2020 election. He lost this state by 1.2 percent, and then he came back and he won in 2024, winning this state by 1.7 percent and winning the national popular vote by about one and a half percent. Why exactly the president can’t just come forward and admit this is absolutely beyond me. Also, why does he think the 2020 election when he was president was stolen away from him, but then in 2024 it was such a good and clean election when it was President Biden in the White House, and of course that election ended up seeing Donald Trump winning. So this is a complete fantasy and farce.”

Boyle, who said as a sports fan that he has learned that you don’t look past an opponent, was asked about what his party needs to do to be successful in the 2026 midterms.

“Since 2024, when voters have been asked what is the top issue, far and away number one has been the high cost of living,” he said. “Whether you call it inflation, whether it’s simply cost of goods, cost of living, it was far and away number one in the 2024 election. It is even higher on the polls today than it was in 2024. Costs have not come down. It is a fact. Costs have not come down despite the president promising when he was campaigning this day that he would, and I quote, “I will lower costs on day one. He has failed.

“He has failed miserably, and the American people know it, which is why, on the question of do you approve or disapprove of the president’s handling of inflation, he has, as of today, according to a Fox News poll, the lowest ratings of any president since George W. Bush in the fall of 2008 during the Great Recession, so he has failed. Now, in terms of what we need to do as Democrats, is number one point out what I just did, but then number two also say for us, it really will be our number one priority. And here is the strategy to bring down food costs. Here is the strategy to bring down healthcare costs, which have really spiked in the last year. Here is the strategy on each and every one of these things, where we’re going to put the high cost of living and this country just being too expensive for most ordinary Americans. We are going to put that front and center.”