The country has rightly focused on the presidential election, but our attention here turns to Congress, the upcoming financial calamity — and a bit of advice from George Washington.
For all the partisan money and effort, Congress remains divided, with a Republican House and Democratic Senate. There remains an excellent chance that bicameral dysfunction will continue, unless elected leaders demand changes of themselves, supported by pleas from constituents.
To voters: The election may be over, but keep watch. Do not fall for excuses when one party defends inaction by accusing the other party of obstruction. To newly elected independent Sen. Angus King and re-elected incumbents Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, and Rep. Mike Michaud, D-2nd District, congratulations. Now, along with incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, you must do everything in your power to return civility and problem-solving methods to Congress. The country’s economy is at stake.
Congressional leaders face economic problems that can only be solved by finding ways to compromise. It’s possible that the “lame-duck” Congress in November and December will simply push back a decision on how to prevent the “fiscal cliff” — when nearly $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts will take effect. If a decision is delayed, newly elected and incumbent leaders in the next full session must overcome what led to the fiscal cliff and continues to plague Congress: inability to focus on long-term budget solutions.
The fiscal cliff was created in the first place to force Congress to act on reducing the deficit. During debate about the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011, the U.S. House and the White House decided that, since they couldn’t agree on a deficit-reducing plan, a super committee would do the work instead. If the committee failed to devise a long-range plan, automatic cuts to defense and domestic spending, called “sequestration,” would occur at the beginning of 2013.
The committee failed. Congress did nothing. And, even though Democrats and Republicans agree that the cuts can’t happen, they appear to have no plan to prevent them. A long-term plan that includes spending cuts and tax increases is essential if the country wants to both seriously reduce the deficit and prevent the type of austerity that could tip the economy back into a recession.
There are also several specific conditions preventing legislators from working together:
* Grover Norquist’s pledge to not raise taxes. A lobbyist and president of the group Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist has gotten 279 members of Congress to sign the pledge. Any such all-or-nothing agreement limits legislators in budget discussions.
* The filibuster. Instead of being used to show dissent, it is too often used to obstruct legislation. Some sort of filibuster reform is prudent, to allow the majority party to lead in the Senate.
* Nondisclosure of political contributors. The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t enforce its own rules on nonprofit 501(c)4 organizations to keep them from hiding their political donors. Disclosure is key to holding politicians accountable.
Making any substantial improvements to the political landscape or future budget deals will require cooperation. As voters across the country look out on a new — but familiar — political future, they should encourage their leaders to remember the concepts of civility that shaped America’s first president.
When he was a boy, George Washington copied by hand the 110 “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation,” originally compiled by Jesuit instructors in the 1500s. The rules hold true today, and we include three here, as modernized by National Public Radio. Whether politicians are debating future economic, health care, education or energy policies, they would be wise to keep them in mind:
* Sleep not when others speak, sit not when others stand, speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not on when others stop.
* Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another though he were your enemy.
* Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
Norquist’s pledge represents a victory of ideology over love of country and doing what is expedient to relieve the suffering brought on by the financial crisis and Great Recession. The ideology that set the ground work for our current debt and deficit enabled two unfunded, arguably illegal wars, massive, unprecedented tax cuts in time of recession (2001) and war, the failure to address a mortgage crisis recognized by the FBI and others in the early 2000’s, the profiteering from Too Big to Fail hucksters selling subprime mortgages, bundling and selling them in securitized, supposedly risk-diluting derivatives… and then getting bailed out by the taxpayers when the house of cards collapsed…
All of this economic fantasy world envisioned by Norquist, the plutocracy of corporate gamecallers, and the ideology that the 1% are deserving of everything they can steal, squeeze and cheat out of the middle class because they are the “smartest in the room,” their lawyers are the best, and best paid, and that markets are infallible… is a crock of BS. With the cry babies still in control of the House and bound to continue whining about their pet prejudices against social services for the elderly, the sick, the poor, the unemployed, immigrants, or their shameless support of the redistribution of more wealth and opportunity upward to the 1%… Norquist ought to repudiate and release those shameful pledge-signers for the good of the country. I won’t hold my breath.
Angus has never been a legislator. I’m afraid he thinks a little too much of himself to fit the bill. Yes, he’ll be a US Senator – a VIP – but as one out of a hundred he’ll be just 1% of the solution to anybody’s problem. They’re big problems. No question. But he’s still only 1% of the solution until he learns how to have an oversized impact on events.
I suspect waiting for the Democrats and the Republicans to start a bidding war over his 1% may be a losing plan. Most of what is on the bargaining table at this stage is a committee assignment. Nothing in the Constitution or the Senate Rules says he can’t be appointed to the committee overseeing buffalo chips in Yellowstone National Park. Not exactly the most interesting committee nor most important to his Maine constituents.
If he doesn’t get in line with other senators for the committee he wants, he could just miss out. Do you think the Democrats will give an assignment to him over, say, Massachusetts Dem Elizabeth Warren if he stands around waiting to decide if he’s an R or a D?
A little less Abe Lincoln, Angus or you could become a Bill Hathaway. Remember Bill? No, me either.
Bill Hathaway (since you do not remember) unseated Margaret Chase Smith in an election she expected to win.
One of the greatest upsets in Maine history. Senator Smith was unseated because she became too Washington, and not enough Maine. That would be easy for Angles as he is from those southern climes.
Yes. Also, Angus King was a young member of his senate staff. And what did Bill H. accomplish as a one term senator?
Perhaps you see my point.
This type of ignorance is exactly why we will get what we deserve.
You got it on Teusday.
I absolutely agree with you, tag. You know why? Because it works both ways. You have a good one, ya hear…
Hey as long as Congress allows every cent owned by the people of the US to be taxed and spent by the government everything will be OK. If the Congress won’t make this simple compromise there will be hell to pay.
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” Alexis de Tocqueville
Congress cannot stop out of control spending as long as that spending is a condition of their employment. We all know that there need to be cuts, but are all averse to cutting that which is dear to us. We forget that somehow our ancestors survived for two centuries without extensive welfare programs and government bureaucracies.
Neither party will show the leadership necessary for true change until forced by their constituents or economic reality.
We forget that somehow our ancestors survived for two centuries without extensive welfare programs and government bureaucracies.
Nor a massive standing military which patrols the globe and occupies hundred of countries.
Cutting spending when necessary and raising taxes when necessary are both tools that need to be employed to right the ship. However, Democrats generally refuse the former, and Republicans generally refuse the latter.
indeed…..vote LIBERTY!
Reagan Bush and Bush all raised taxes while at the same time, altering spending priorities.
My big disappointment with the Obama administration is that it seems to mirror (if somewhat dimmer) the policies of the Republican Party. We have unnecessary foreign wars, magnanamous give-a-ways to governments of countries which hate us, and the bail-outs of corporate giants while ignoring the people who work the hard jobs.
At the same time we have some things here at home which need attention. Why does our country have the most populous prison system in the world? Will we ever get the southern border under control? Is our country ever going to regain some of its manufacturing sector?
Offenses to our constitution, and restrictions on our freedoms put in place during the era of George W. Bush have been allowed to remain on the books, Obama signed a reauthorization of the Patriot act, has kept Guantanamo open (despite his promise to close it) and has allowed the unconstitutional trials of inmates to continue unchecked.
There is a lot of evil here, and I have a tough time attributing it to either Republicans or Democrats alone.
I would have voted for someone other than Obama if someone with a plan had been running. Unfortunately we had one guy who promises evertthing and delivers nothing, and another guy who makes different and contridictory promises.
Good questions and I agree in many regards – I always identify the GOP as the war party, and the Democrats as the war party lite. Also, corporate and corporate-lite.
Neither have a solid claim on fiscal responsibility certainly – both have been irresponsible in their own ways.
I’m a big third party/independent proponent and believe we need viable 3rd options, if not to contend, at least to leverage the two parties to change – and to keep them honest. I voted for Johnson.
vietnam, korea, WWII, WWI?
each ramped up by democrats, who have collectively killed many, many more Americans than the GOP via military endeavors
Historically, both parties certainly have their share of blood on their hands. It’s a contemporary descriptor however. Both parties bow down to the gods of the military industrial complex and interventionism, though it’s quite clear which party today is more aggressive and eager to project American power.
Please tell me which one that is,,, by color preferably as I find the distinction difficult to recognize.
The ones that led us into Iraq and probably would have led us into Iran had their guy won in 2008. The Democrats were the great enablers of course, and not free of blame.
What about the one who lead us into Bosnia? How about the guy who is still fighting in Afghanistan despite the fact that Osama is dead? BTW check your history, Clinton stayed in Iran to fight senior Bush’s war. could have left at any time, but didn’t.
Tux, I am not suggesting the Democrats are doves, nor have a wise foreign policy. They are simply the lesser evil today as far as foreign policy is concerned, in my opinion. They seem to be seeking smaller scale, precision resolutions vs large scale and that is more appropriate, 21st century thinking. This is not to say that this won’t change in the next 4 years. It may very well.
Clinton was obviously an interventionist and his administration killed more innocent Iraqis than either Bush or Obama’s. You needn’t refresh me on the history Tux, there are far more deserving candidates surrounding us. ;)
It is simplistic to say that Democrats or Republicans are responsible for World War Two, or Vietnam. World War two came to us prepackaged. I’d like to know what your position on that war is? Should we have moved back? let Japan take Hawaii, and Germany roll over our Allies in Europe?
Vietnam began as a US issue under the government of Dwight D. Eisenhower. He financed the war the French fought, sent in “advisors” and later armed those advisors. Look at the wall in Washington and see the names BEFORE 1961 when Kennedy took over. Ike told Kennedy that he felt soon ground troops would be necessary in Southeast Asia. He said: “When it becomes necessary to tell the people that we must fight in Vietnam, I will come up from Gettysburg when you so inform them, and stand behind you when you make the announcment.
It is funny/strange you seem to have deleted the civil war which alone killed more Americans then the four wars you listed above. As I recall Lincoln was a Republican, but again, his only choice was to allow the Southern States to leave… That would have been my choice… but no one asked me.
They are all “paid” by the same people now. The constant campaign rewards people who raise more money for themselves and their Party, so who do they listen to?
Agreed. We the constituents need to be talking with our Representatives. We outnumber the lobbyists.
This is why a constitutional amendment for lifetime term limits for congress is needed. 2 terms for congressmen and 1 for senators. If they have to go back to the private sector and get real jobs then they probably will vote differently.
Also, make paid lobbying a federal crime with severe penalties. Outlaw ALL foreign lobbying. No more leaving congress and getting a job on K street.
We could have only a few months, and at most 3 to 5 years before that economic reality is forced on us. The real economic picture and fundamentals are actually so bad that i do not believe even Romney could prevent the coming collapse. Although I do believe he would manage it better. But even though he would not have been the cause, he and the republicans would get the blame. At least with Obama and the democrats in charge they will try and blame it on the republicans but historically the president at the time gets the blame, warranted or not.
Not pleas from constituents….. demands! Let us get noisy folks.
Agreed. Time we study again the wisdom that was born of revolution.
“…That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government,”
I concur.
I don’t think the pundents or this paper recognizes the reality of this election.
I voted for Obama, despite the fact that some of his policies are totally unpaletable to me.
Obama won simply because the Republicans nominated an empty suit who iked to fire people and made his money betting against US workers.
Romney is toast, but now we better spend the next four years watching the other guy. The Dream act, gifts to foreign Nations, and the continual devaluation of US currency all need serious scrutiny, and I am in favor of the loyal opposition stopping these programs.
“Obstructionist” is just a partisan battle cry from the far left as “socialist” is a cry from the far right. Somewhere in between there is truth.
somewhere in the ‘middle’ is corporatism and tyranny, that is the only truth worth focusing on
The curiously titled “sequestration”, for mandatory across the board cuts, will severely hinder scientific research and application of technology. Could have been avoided. More like castration.
It balances the budget quite quickly though. Notice how essentially every Republican is against that though? Kind of proves that this debt talk has never been about getting the debt in check, but simply cutting the things they never liked in the first place.
Reminds me of the Democrats who can never think of anything but the military that can be cut.
It’s the biggest thing that does need to be cut though.
We need to stop maligning half the country as well and calling them mooches. Because the real moochers are the ones who voted for Romney simply to keep a 3% tax cut. We need to work together and come up with solutions together. I’ve seen one party reaching across the aisle and the other refusing to and admitting their number one priority wasn’t to fix the economy but instead to unseat the President. Hopefully that behavior will be over this time around.
Democrats and our progressive leaning independents have led and will lead. Will the GOP, which has been in grip of the TeaRadicals, now wake up, smell the coffee, and realize that their only purpose in life CAN NOT be to simply say NO so that they can try to defeat President Obama. He WON. Romney LOST. Now they need to get back into reality, stop thinking compromise is a dirty word, and work with the President and the other party. Let’s be real here. It has been the radical, ultra right wing, Republican TeaParty that has abandoned the GOP of Ike, Rockefeller, Chase Smith, and Cohen and become this wild-eyed radical ultra right wing uncompromising party of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. If they don’t learn the lesson of this election and get back on the path of reason and moderation, they are DOOMED going forward. Americans want action, moderation, compromise, and practical problem solving, not TeaRadical nonsense and endless obstruction.
The first thing that needs to happen is we need to go after all who had a hand in voter suppression. They should be rounded up and tried. Then we can move on.