I've spent enough of my life in Washington to take its theatrics with as much seriousness as a Seinfeld episode. A large portion of what passes for policy debate isn't at all -- it's play-acting for various constituencies. The actors know they're acting, as do their protagonists on the other side who are busily putting on their own plays for their own audiences.
Typically, though, backstage is different. When the costumes and grease paint come off, compromises are made, deals put together, legislation hammered out. Then at show time the players announce the results -- spinning them to make it seem they've kept to their parts.
At least that's the standard playbook.
But this time there's no backstage. The kids in the GOP have trashed it. The GOP's experienced actors -- House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McDonnell -- have been upstaged by juveniles like Eric Cantor and Michele Bachmann, who don't know the difference between playacting and governing. They're in league with tea party fanatics who hate government so much they're willing to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States. Washington has gone from theater to reality TV -- a game of hi-jinks chicken that could end in a crash.
So now the GOP's experienced actors are trying to retake the stage. They've set a vote Tuesday for a so-called "cut, cap, and balance" plan -- featuring an immediate $100 billion-plus cut from next year's budget and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.
The plan would be a disaster for the nation, of course -- a cut of that magnitude when the economy is still struggling to get out of recession would plunge it back in, and a balanced-budget amendment would make it impossible to counteract future recessions with extra spending and tax cuts.
But, hey, it's all for show. The GOP's adults know the president would veto their cuts and they couldn't possibly muster the two-thirds of the Senate and House needed to override the veto. Nor, obviously, do they have the two-thirds necessary to pass a constitutional amendment.
The point is to give the kids more votes they can wave in the direction of their tea party constituents. It's hoped that the "cut, cap, and balance" plan -- along with Mitch McConnell's proposed Republican vote disapproving the President's move to raise the debt ceiling (which the President will then veto) -- will be enough to get the juveniles to raise the debt ceiling before the August 2 deadline.
"The cut, cap and balance plan that the House will vote on next week is a solid plan for moving forward," John Boehner told reporters Friday. Translated: I hope this will be enough playacting to get their votes on the debt ceiling.
But even if it's enough, the bigger problem remains: There's still no backstage where the real work of governing this country can occur. At best, the vote to raise the debt ceiling kicks the can down the road only until the end of 2012. By then, if we don't elect adults, the kids will be in charge.
Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.
Follow Robert Reich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RBReich
In a way I have to think he is wrong to be so upset or urgent about the debt ceiling and the American economy. Yes, huge global problem, but we are still as well off and powerful - everyone is having trouble. This is the age of the evil of two lessers so to speak, and the evil lesser in the global economy is us, the US. Not very reassuring, but I think nothing bad is going to happen even if the ceiling is not raised for a while. If anything happens it will have been planned and executed on purpose by the Republican/Fascists who have been pushing this collapse thing all the way down the road - with the can we have been kicking.
As for thinking that raising the debt ceiling is not urgent - yes we might not see buildings collapse the day after on 8/3, but I think that we will all be surprised at how severe a world-wide reaction there will really be if we don't raise it. This is not something to play around with - to continue in the hopeful fairytale that the US is still the "biggest and the bestest" is dangerously naive. We can be, but not if we ignore the rest of the world and our evolving place in it.
An interesting comment made this morning on the Today program said that the sheer number of TP members elected in 2010 (87) are skewing the experience level curve in Congress (and the Republican party) with their in-expertise and lack of real economic knowledge. They believe they have been elected by G*d and their missionary zeal is overriding any rudimentary good sense they might once have possessed.
I question the debt ceiling for several reasons ... first was that every time the country needs to get stampeded to the right there is some huge crisis that is going to destroy the country and there has to be an end to it. Second, I think it is BS. Where is the world going to go? Who is in better shape than us, or more in the center of the global economy? Answer is, the Western world ought to reset the global economy and not use this manufactured crisis as a lever to force the world to give up social safety nets.
This is basically a virtual hidden genocide.
I guess we have to wait until the next election to verify the meaning of the last election. I question the election and the media we see in this country, I think things are far more manufactured than I've ever thought before - and getting worse.
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Perhaps chosen by adults who believed l i e s told to them by the Koch-ies.
More than anything we need to term limit Congress.
Oh how I wish he would have held frequent press conferences during the health care boondogle insisting that a single-payer system with reasonable limitations of care for both the very young and the very old are necessary.
No heart operations if someone over 65 has a heart attack?
No special "preemie" care for an infant?
No MRI's or CAT scans for the over 65 group?
Should they be resucitated?
Should operations for cleft palates not be covered?
Just what would you limit that you think is reasonable in the care of human beings?
We have seen more than a few examples of the TP faction going their own way even on planned votes. Boehner has very little control over the current House and it seems that even when he believes he does, he doesn't.
The TP kids have rendered the current edition of the GOP functionally useless in participating in the governance of the Country. The debt limit is the latest mess and problem created, where before, none existed.
As mentioned, at least prior to the tea party, they got to reality in the back rooms.....
Why not skip the back rooms and just be honest up front....
"Your values and world views work fine for you in your life, but they don't work in a world where we all live in a common society. We have to face reality and it isn't necessarily equal or fair, we just have to do the best we can with what we got. So we are going to cut SS, Medicare, and even the DoD and DHS. We can do this through reforms, and do everything to reduce the hardship impacts of those effected.....but it is a choice reality is forcing us to make...."
"Vote for me not because I parrot what you like for your vote. Vote for me because I am evaluating the best policies based on the best information we have on how reality really works."
Running a government that is this big and managing this much money has a lot of waste, I see it everyday in just one small small corner of it.
Instead of having pan handlers in office peddling for votes and donations, we need honest smart people whom know how to think and communicate about the real issues.
This congress in particular is amateur hour.
Europe functioned fine before the European Union.
Our government was established to protect the rights of individuals. It has since morphed into a type of religion where is is all things to all people.
The role of the Federal government was spelled out when it was created. There was little if anything said about the role of the government in economic matters because it was thought that a free people would take care of economics on their own.
First, (nominal) national debt is growing exponentially fast, and speeding up.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
National debt this very minute stands at $14.357TRILLION, adding average of $3.85BILLION perday. At this grow rate, if nothing else goes wrong, this time next year it would stand at $15.762TRILLION. Debt is growing at over 10% peryear.
But of course, lots of things can go wrong. There're 2andhalf wars simmering in Iraq + Afghanistan, boiling in Libya, smoldering in Somalia. European banks + economies can tank (triggered by Greece or Italy); hence global interests rates would push upwards. That inevitably would aggravate US national debt exponential growth rate.
US has 104 aging nuclear reactors under approaching environmental catastrophic threats next year, projected by astronomers, cosmic + Earth climate scientists to peak in solarflares and electromagnetic storms threatening to disable continental or global electric powergrids. Director of NRC recently said publicly these nuclear reactors aren't prepared to handle such environmental threats.
America needs strong wise leaders with firm moral compass and spiritual center that can guide America to navigate through looming perils in multiple dimensions.
And although our communications are broader and more sopisticated, they are poorly supplied with the information our populace needs to make informed decisions. And with our shorter school days (5-6 hours max) our shorter school years (mostly 180 days) we are short-changing those who will lead and support us in the future. I favor teachers having 5 classes in those 8 hour days with no more than 3 preparations and 1 supervisory - leaving 2 hours per day for preparation and for counseling students who ask for help.
Why didn't the Dems pass last year's budget, instead they kicked the can down the road.