Bill Schneider
By Bill Schneider
Most Americans think the US government is dysfunctional. They’re right.
It’s because we have two governments at war with each other: The Blue government, led by President Barack Obama in the White House, versus the Red government, led by the Republicans who control Congress.
The Blue government puts income inequality at the top of the agenda. The Red government puts debt reduction at the top.
What we’re seeing now is the Blue government and the Red government each acting as if the other doesn’t exist. The US government is not set up to run that way.
Obama enraged Republicans when he announced executive actions on immigration and Cuba. House Speaker John Boehner enraged Democrats when he invited the prime minister of Israel to address Congress without first informing the White House.
Result: gridlock.
Competition is essential to our sports and to our democracy. But when a game, like the Super Bowl, is over, the competition ends. It’s the same with political competition. It is supposed to end when the election is over. But now it doesn’t ever seem to end.
Especially when the people elect a Blue team to the White House and a Red team to Congress. Each can claim to be the champion — as Obama did during his State of the Union speech last month. He reminded Republicans that he had run two presidential campaigns, and “I won both of them.”
The Blue government’s goal is to end the austerity regime imposed by the budget deal of 2011. That resulted in sequesters — indiscriminate across-the-board budget cuts that slashed domestic and defence spending.
Democrats are thrilled that Obama wants to ignore the sequesters, increase spending and pass tax cuts that would benefit working- and middle-class Americans. How does he propose to pay for it? By raising taxes on wealthier Americans. Republicans reject that out of hand.
Democrats hope to entice Republicans into a deal by increasing military spending as well as domestic. “No foe in the field,” a retired Marine general told the Senate Armed Service Committee, “can wreak such havoc on our military security that mindless sequestration is achieving today.”
Republicans are split. Defence hawks share the general’s alarm. Fiscal hawks say spending is spending — and it’s all bad.
Democrats have to be careful about raising taxes. The White House got a stern warning last week after it proposed taxing the earnings of 529 college-savings accounts. It’s mostly affluent Americans who benefit from those accounts (they have the money to put away). But the backlash to the president’s tax proposal was so fierce — from Democrats as well as Republicans — that Obama had to back down. A lot of people who don’t consider themselves rich take advantage of tax-free college savings plans.
With the deficit now more or less under control, the Red government insists that the highest priority should be reducing the national debt. Interest payments on the debt could become a serious burden in the future, though they are manageable at the moment because interest rates are so low. In addition, the impending retirement of 76 million baby boomers will likely put a huge burden on Social Security and Medicare.
Republicans want entitlement reform. That’s a risky goal for them. In the last two national elections, Republicans did best with voters 65 and older. Any proposal to “restructure” Social Security or Medicare will put the senior vote at risk — even if the reforms affect only future retirees. AARP, the nation’s largest interest group, for example, is extremely protective of those programs because they benefit seniors.
The US Constitution facilitates gridlock by creating a separation of powers. In parliamentary democracies, however, gridlock is unconstitutional. A core principle of the British constitution is, “Her Majesty’s government must be carried on.”
If the government can’t govern, it falls. Parliament is dissolved and new elections are held until the people elect a government that can govern decisively.
The United States has no queen. There is no constitutional requirement that the government has to function. Last month’s Fox News poll found that, by three to one, Americans see the United States as a “dysfunctional family.” Though Americans elect a Democratic president and a Republican Congress, they expect them to work together.
And they often do — when the country is faced with a crisis. That’s the only way to get the Blue government and the Red government to collaborate.
But the crisis has to be real. The test is whether it generates an overwhelming sense of public urgency. Several potential crises are coming down the road in the next two years: funding the Homeland Security Department; raising the debt ceiling; financing the depleted Highway Trust Fund; slowing climate change; renewing the Export-Import Bank that helps finance exports. Also looming is the threat that Islamic State can seize and control much of Syria or Iraq, or that Russia will take over Ukraine.
It will be interesting to see which of these emerge as genuine crises, where the public demands action. Republicans have learned — or should have learned — that they can never be seen as responsible for creating the crisis. That means no government shutdowns. No threats to default on the national debt.
If the crisis is not real, the Red and Blue governments will remain locked in a stand-off.
It may last for the next two years.REUTERS
By Bill Schneider
Most Americans think the US government is dysfunctional. They’re right.
It’s because we have two governments at war with each other: The Blue government, led by President Barack Obama in the White House, versus the Red government, led by the Republicans who control Congress.
The Blue government puts income inequality at the top of the agenda. The Red government puts debt reduction at the top.
What we’re seeing now is the Blue government and the Red government each acting as if the other doesn’t exist. The US government is not set up to run that way.
Obama enraged Republicans when he announced executive actions on immigration and Cuba. House Speaker John Boehner enraged Democrats when he invited the prime minister of Israel to address Congress without first informing the White House.
Result: gridlock.
Competition is essential to our sports and to our democracy. But when a game, like the Super Bowl, is over, the competition ends. It’s the same with political competition. It is supposed to end when the election is over. But now it doesn’t ever seem to end.
Especially when the people elect a Blue team to the White House and a Red team to Congress. Each can claim to be the champion — as Obama did during his State of the Union speech last month. He reminded Republicans that he had run two presidential campaigns, and “I won both of them.”
The Blue government’s goal is to end the austerity regime imposed by the budget deal of 2011. That resulted in sequesters — indiscriminate across-the-board budget cuts that slashed domestic and defence spending.
Democrats are thrilled that Obama wants to ignore the sequesters, increase spending and pass tax cuts that would benefit working- and middle-class Americans. How does he propose to pay for it? By raising taxes on wealthier Americans. Republicans reject that out of hand.
Democrats hope to entice Republicans into a deal by increasing military spending as well as domestic. “No foe in the field,” a retired Marine general told the Senate Armed Service Committee, “can wreak such havoc on our military security that mindless sequestration is achieving today.”
Republicans are split. Defence hawks share the general’s alarm. Fiscal hawks say spending is spending — and it’s all bad.
Democrats have to be careful about raising taxes. The White House got a stern warning last week after it proposed taxing the earnings of 529 college-savings accounts. It’s mostly affluent Americans who benefit from those accounts (they have the money to put away). But the backlash to the president’s tax proposal was so fierce — from Democrats as well as Republicans — that Obama had to back down. A lot of people who don’t consider themselves rich take advantage of tax-free college savings plans.
With the deficit now more or less under control, the Red government insists that the highest priority should be reducing the national debt. Interest payments on the debt could become a serious burden in the future, though they are manageable at the moment because interest rates are so low. In addition, the impending retirement of 76 million baby boomers will likely put a huge burden on Social Security and Medicare.
Republicans want entitlement reform. That’s a risky goal for them. In the last two national elections, Republicans did best with voters 65 and older. Any proposal to “restructure” Social Security or Medicare will put the senior vote at risk — even if the reforms affect only future retirees. AARP, the nation’s largest interest group, for example, is extremely protective of those programs because they benefit seniors.
The US Constitution facilitates gridlock by creating a separation of powers. In parliamentary democracies, however, gridlock is unconstitutional. A core principle of the British constitution is, “Her Majesty’s government must be carried on.”
If the government can’t govern, it falls. Parliament is dissolved and new elections are held until the people elect a government that can govern decisively.
The United States has no queen. There is no constitutional requirement that the government has to function. Last month’s Fox News poll found that, by three to one, Americans see the United States as a “dysfunctional family.” Though Americans elect a Democratic president and a Republican Congress, they expect them to work together.
And they often do — when the country is faced with a crisis. That’s the only way to get the Blue government and the Red government to collaborate.
But the crisis has to be real. The test is whether it generates an overwhelming sense of public urgency. Several potential crises are coming down the road in the next two years: funding the Homeland Security Department; raising the debt ceiling; financing the depleted Highway Trust Fund; slowing climate change; renewing the Export-Import Bank that helps finance exports. Also looming is the threat that Islamic State can seize and control much of Syria or Iraq, or that Russia will take over Ukraine.
It will be interesting to see which of these emerge as genuine crises, where the public demands action. Republicans have learned — or should have learned — that they can never be seen as responsible for creating the crisis. That means no government shutdowns. No threats to default on the national debt.
If the crisis is not real, the Red and Blue governments will remain locked in a stand-off.
It may last for the next two years.REUTERS
