Lessons from the Debt “Crisis”
With today’s likely passage of the debt ceiling increase bill in the Senate, the federal government will have passed a piece of legislation heretofore unmatched in its mutual provocation of disgust from both sides of the aisle. Hey, at least we can all agree to disagree.
Everyone from Barack Obama’s “socialist pawns” to Michelle Bachmann’s “tea-baggin’ crazies” is less than satisfied with the contents of the bill. I have to say, it feels sort of odd to be in my particular position. I can’t remember too many occasions on which I actually was fairly pleased with a piece of legislation that was voted for by a majority of Congress, yet when I was in such a vast minority in terms of my support for the bill.
On the one hand, the Republican in me was relieved to see the President bend over and take it on revenue increases and cuts to entitlement programs. On the other hand, the sensible aspiring economist in me was wary of seeing steep cuts in government spending at a time when unemployment is over 9%. All in all, I’d say the bill could have looked a lot worse — if either side had completely gotten its way.
My position at this point is not just strange, but rather frustrating as well. It leaves me to go to bed at night with the difficult (albeit probably somewhat arrogant) thoughts of, “everybody in this country must be completely out of their mind but me.”
Thankfully, I feel less guilty about my arrogance in knowing that I’m not alone in feeling that way. If you lean hard to the right, you’re probably thinking that any willingness whatsoever to increase the debt at a time when we’re at risk for default defies all fiscal logic. We obviously haven’t learned anything about the urgent need to sort out our finances ASAP and we’ll all be paying the price (literally and figuratively) for our own stupidity in a big way, really soon. I’d agree with that — to an extent. And if you lean hard to the left, you’re probably terrified that our system of government permits a small minority of activists who are very politically charged (but less-than-savvy in the realm of actual governance) to hold the economy by its neck over the dark, endless abyss of double-dip recession, make steep, ideologically-rooted demands, and only allow us to breathe once we’ve given in (what’s even scarier than the fact that they can do it is the fact that they would and did do it). This too, would garner my agreement — up to a point.
Then there’s me. The guy in the middle. The guy who looks at the two extremes above and weeps for the future of our nation.
Do yourself a favor. When this bill passes today, don’t breathe a sigh of relief. Don’t act like the elected officials in Washington have done something “big” and “noble” to compromise on this important issue. Understand that we should never have been in this position in the first place, and the fact that this issue could only be resolved after weeks of intense, tabloidesque drama is a really serious problem. The way our elected officials acted was beyond “childish” — a word which many of them acknowledged and embraced in major media outlets to describe their own behavior over the past few weeks (relieving, isn’t it?).
Well surely, you say, there must be a silver lining here. Right? Sure. At least there was one moment of quasi-unity yesterday when Rep. Giffords made her way into the House chamber to a standing ovation, in order to vote in favor of the bill for the first time since being attacked a few months back. At least her story allows us to come together on something. We can all agree on our unqualified opposition to unprovoked, unmitigated, fatal, close range gun violence in grocery stores.
As for now, it seems like that’s about all we can agree on. It might not be a huge step forward, but it’s a start.
