(Guest Contributor): Discipline Government, Too!

Hello there, Dr. E. here.

The following is a Guest Contributor opinion column by Will Marshall, who is the founder and president of the Progressive Policy Institute, which describes its blog as

“…Lively political commentary informed by rigorous analysis and evidence. Inspired wonkery — a constant stream of bold ideas for solving big public problems. And a distinctly progressive point of view grounded in a spirit of radical pragmatism.”

I thought this paragraph from Progressive Policy Institute site also said a great deal in few sentences:

“President Obama has to manage a heterogeneous party that includes moderates and liberals, and even a significant smattering of conservatives. Republicans may march in lockstep — and have certainly suffered for it — but Democrats can’t afford to indulge demands for ideological purity.”

As always, Guest Voice columns do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Moderate Voice or its writers. And, we here at TMV like to add additional well-written opinions and points of view as we can. Since there is news today that President Obama will seek a 3-year freeze on budgets for many domestic programs, with increases thereafter no more than yearly inflation rates, (Please God, dont let cuts deeply impact early childhood education) this Guest voice seemed particularly timely.

DISCIPLINE GOVERNMENT TOO

Since last week’s shocker in Massachusetts, the White House has amped up the populist rhetoric in hopes of deflecting voter anger onto Wall Street bonus babies and health insurance companies. That might make progressives feel better, but it’s unlikely to mollify ornery independents.

For one thing, Barack Obama is no Huey Long. As president, his job is to point the way out of the nation’s dilemmas, not channel voter rage. What our jittery country needs now is his calm, penetrating intelligence, not hackneyed demagoguery that will unsettle markets and retard the return of economic confidence. A swifter economic recovery is the best elixir for what ails Obama and his party.

Besides, independents, who are now more numerous than either Democrats or Republicans, are as upset with big government as they are with big banking and business. Everything that has happened in the past year – from bailing out feckless bankers, home owners and auto executives, to stimulus spending that has failed (so far) to keep unemployment from getting worse, to the spectacle of lawmakers appeasing powerful interests as they cobble together a huge and complicated health reform bill – has aggravated their misgivings about government’s cost and intrusiveness.

President Obama needs to speak directly to independents’ qualms about big government. The first step is to acknowledge their validity. Then he must take forceful action to show that he is as determined to discipline government as he is to impose new rules on irresponsible capitalists.

On no account should he back down on health care reform. Rather, he should work to strengthen its ability to control health care costs, the issue that matters most to independent and working-class voters.

The right response to anti-government populism is to get serious about restoring fiscal sanity in Washington. That’s why the president’s decision over the weekend to support a bipartisan deficit reduction commission is a promising sign.

In theory, establishing a bipartisan commission to cut federal budget deficits is a terrible idea. It lets Congress off the hook, even while usurping the legislative branch’s Constitutional responsibility for the nation’s fisc.

In the real world, however, a commission may be the only way to force Congress to do its job. Lawmakers’ inability to find common ground on expanding health care coverage – something both parties claim they want – doesn’t inspire much confidence that they will take the tough steps necessary to close the nation’s yawning deficits.

That’s why 14 moderate Democratic senators, led by Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad and Sen. Evan Bayh, have threatened to withhold their votes for raising the nation’s debt ceiling – which allows the government to borrow to meet its obligations – unless Congress sets up a commission. As currently proposed, the commission would present its recommendations to Congress as a package for an up or down vote. This is how Congress managed to close unneeded military bases after the Cold War ended. According to the Washington Post, President Obama has endorsed the idea of setting up a commission by legislation, after previously pushing for a bipartisan panel established by executive order.

The moderates are right that a “statutory” commission would have real teeth. For that reason, however, it has drawn fierce opposition from both ends of the ideological spectrum. A coalition of 50 left-leaning pressure groups came out swinging on Wednesday, blasting a commission as “undemocratic” and “truly dangerous” to Social Security. Having invested time and money in acquiring influence in the legislative arena, the last thing they want is a change of venue.

For such groups, “protecting” Social Security benefits from cuts is more important than dealing with the nation’s fiscal crisis – just as many conservatives would sooner see America plunge deeper into the red than raise a penny in taxes. “A budget deficit commission is nothing more than a time-tested ploy to get Republicans to raise taxes,” the Wall Street Journal harrumphed last month.

So there we are: the left won’t cut spending, the right won’t raise taxes, and the two remain locked in a tacit conspiracy to bankrupt America. Maybe all those angry independents have a point.

It remains to be seen whether Obama’s decision back a statutory commission will sway congressional leaders, who have been skeptical. In any case, if the Senate moderates hold firm, Congress won’t be able to raise the debt ceiling to $14.2 trillion, which it must do by mid-February or the federal government will run out of money.

This sets the stage for some interesting brinkmanship, and for a determined push by President Obama to change the way Washington works. Stay tuned.

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CODA
The image is of whipmaker Mike Murphy who was “influenced by Thomas Cockburn-Cambell who taught me whip cracking and whip making skills from when I was 9 years old to middle teens. His knowledge was very extensive, not only on whip making but in the business of all things of the Australian outback…”
dr.e.