By Lance Simmens
So here we are again facing budgetary policy shenanigans by a handful of obstructionists aligned with the Republican Party in another round of Russian roulette (the irony that would be too funny if it were not so dangerously imminent) that actually has the House leadership on the verge of self-implosion. And, of course, the cost of such foolishness will once again fall upon the overwhelming majority of middle-class taxpayers and those poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
The lesson here is quite simple: elected representatives of the people have a responsibility to do the job of making the hard decisions on policy that benefit the nation and subsequently they must be willing to pay the price of such actions. Shutting the government down is a high-priced hissy fit that forfeits that responsibility. So Congress, DO YOUR JOB!
In a recently unveiled blueprint by House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities contends the proposed budget “illustrates House Republicans’ disturbing vision for the country: health care stripped away from millions of people, higher poverty and hunger, capitulation to climate change, more tax cheating by high-income people, and large-scale disinvestment from the building blocks of opportunity and economic growth — from medical research to education to child care. It would narrow opportunity, worsen racial inequities, and make it harder for people to afford the basics.”
Without getting into the deep thicket of budgetary minutiae, suffice it to say that the current uproar within the House leadership threatens the very fabric of a democratic system that is critically dependent upon consensus, compromise, and reason. In a recent article by Tony Romm in the Washington Post, he opines “at the heart of the stalemate are renewed Republican calls for deep federal spending cuts, more than three months after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) finalized a deal with President Biden that was supposed to prevent this very brinkmanship.”
Of course, to anyone witnessing the clown show of the Speaker election, which required 15 rounds to choose a leader, it certainly is no surprise that McCarthy would have agreed to virtually anything that put him over the top at least for the short term. Well, now the bill is due Mr. Speaker, and the price is steep. It is possible that it may require Democratic support in order to remove the blockade or possible removal of the Speaker himself.
A shutdown would represent the 21st time since 1977, the year that Congress shifted the start of its fiscal year to Oct. 1. Millions of federal employees and active military service members will stop receiving paychecks. The disruption may also directly affect US foreign military aide and assistance to Ukraine. Even in a shutdown, the nation’s approximately 1.3 million active-duty troops helm their stations without pay.
The role of the legislative branch of government is to reach consensus through a series of processes: budgetary, financial, and appropriations, and the signature of the president to fund the activities of the U.S. government. I have spent the majority of my life working within and throughout these processes and have often expressed my admiration for both the messiness of deliberations that render decisions that affect millions of people and astonishment that in times of deepest crisis, cooler heads usually prevail. When I first went to work in Washington in 1978, I was amazed at both the decorum and the willingness of professional politicians to reach out and, while driving a hard bargain, keep the greater good foremost in their calculations for when to hold and when to fold ‘em. The malaise that afflicts our current decision-making processes defies rationality and common sense. We, the people, deserve better. Keep that in mind as you ponder next year’s election.
Winston Churchill lamented “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
The beauty of the American experiment has been its resiliency and the fact that while not always moving expeditiously and testing one’s patience over critically important and seemingly obvious faults, we continue to remain the envy of the world and prove that democracy can work. Not only here in the United States but in other countries, authoritarianism is playing an increasingly disturbing role in answer to frustration. If our political and policy-making infrastructure succumbs to the toxic infusion of anti-democratic rule we will rue the day we have forsaken our Constitution and the founding fathers. We must do better!
To borrow from President John F. Kennedy, we choose to do things “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Shutting down the government is failure and escapades such as the budget stalemate unfolding at this juncture further erode public trust and confidence. We must do better!