Another day, another grotesque, bloated, pork-laden omnibus spending bill, passed in the looming shadow of a government shut-down. A bill so long and convoluted and presented so close to deadline that no one even had a chance to read it all (Senator Rand Paul tried). A bill that did nothing to address the mind-numbingly absurd deficit and national debt. A bill that was as loaded with pork-barrel absurdities as all its predecessors. A bill that did absolutely nothing to “drain the swamp” or to demonstrate the slightest fealty to the perpetual promise of spending restraint and limited government that the Republicans offer.
A bill that Trump suggested he might veto, before signing it with barely a whimper. That whimper? “Never again,” as in he won’t sign such a monstrosity again.
Yeah, and Lucy’s not going to snatch away the football next time.
I’m sure Trump’s devotees will find some way to spin this as a positive, and I’m sure the GOP Congressional leadership will mush-mouth something about how this was the best the could be done.
Many will argue we can address this farce by pushing our representatives back to the old system of voting on individual bills. I won’t hold my breath.
Why would they go back to the old ways? The beauty of this new system – for them – is that they can lay blame off on someone else. They can claim they personally oppose pork, but that there was no time to trim it because they were up against the dreaded wall of a government shut-down. Where, however, was the effort to get it right this time after they faced the very same supposed dilemma last time?
A cynic would conclude that this pattern of last-minute omnibus bills has become deliberate. Politicians have as job #1 getting re-elected, and the last thing they ever want to do is give their electoral opponents ammunition. Voting records are ammunition, especially when votes are specific. Voting to keep the government open can, on the other hand, be sold as “I hated it but had no choice – the alternative was worse.”
One of the great disconnects in American politics is the consistently atrocious Congressional approval rate vs the consistently sky-high re-election rate. Apart from a post-9/11 spike, Congress’s job approval has never broken 50%. And, yet, House representatives’ re-election rates routinely top 90%, and never fall below 85%. Some will blame gerrymandering for this, but even gerrymandering wouldn’t work so well if voters actually held their own reps’ feet to the fire. We can interpret this two ways. Either people feel Congress sucks, but my rep is great, or Congress sucks, but I hate the “other” party so I’m going to keep sending my disappointment back to work. Either way, there’s little impetus for substantive legislative change, leaving political machinations as the primary re-election tool.
And, frankly, the cynical view is the one that makes the most sense. Sure, there are a few good ones (looking at you, Messrs. Paul, Amash, and Massie), but most of our members of Congress demonstrate the same fecklessness, over and over and over again. One would have to be a starry-eyed Charlie Brown not to conclude that this brinkmanship is deliberate.
How does this get fixed? I don’t know. When 2/3 of the country would rather eat hot gravel than vote against “their” party, the hope for change is pretty faint. But, the starting point should be a bit of honesty. Don’t expect your guys to do it better next time, no matter if your party is the one currently in power or the one looking to get back into power.
Loading ...
A strong factor you did not mention in the re-elections is that a representative with long tenure obtains privileged appointments; think of Orrin Hatch. His replacment might be better on sixteen counts BUT as a new representative has no clout.