Editorial: 38 Members of Congress find courage to do the right thing
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Editorial: 38 Members of Congress find courage to
do the right thing
USA TODAY, April 4, 2012
One of the surest ways to lose all hope that Congress will ever
solve the nation's toughest problems is to watch the annual debate
over the federal budget, which took place in the House last
week.
Remember, this comes at a time when budget deficits (about $1
trillion a year) and the national debt ($15.6 trillion, counting what the nation owes
itself for programs such as Social Security) constitute an
increasingly urgent national crisis.
What did the House do? Nothing. Democrats offered a budget that
got no Republican votes. Republicans offered a budget that got no
Democratic votes, but passed because the GOP controls the House. It
will go nowhere in the Democratic Senate, which has no plans to
take up a budget this year anyway.
If that's what passes for Congress doing its job, voters will be
justified in thinking they need a new Congress. But voters are just
as feckless and irresponsible. They keep electing politicians who
promise not to raise their taxes or cut their benefits, and they
tell pollsters they don't want their representatives to compromise.
What do they expect?
There aren't many heroes in this soul-destroying process, but we
found a tiny band of 38 - the 22 Democrats and 16 Republicans who voted
for a bipartisan alternative budget based on the proposal from
President
Obama's fiscal commission in 2010. The budget proposed by Reps.
Jim Cooper,
D-Tenn., and Steven
LaTourette, R-Ohio, backed a combination of the tax increases
most Republicans won't vote for and the cuts in entitlement
programs such as Social Security that most Democrats won't
support.
This, or something very much like it, is where every
non-partisan budget expert and every realistic politician in
Washington knows Congress will have to go to solve the budget
problem. Entitlements in their current form are unsustainably
expensive, and tax cuts have left revenues at historic lows,
inadequate to pay for the government services Americans demand.
Cooper and LaTourette both say about 100 members said they'd be
with them, but then conservative and liberal organizations - groups
LaTourette colorfully called "bloodsuckers" - began an unusually aggressive
effort to pressure Republicans and Democrats to vote no. By the
final 382-38 vote, two-thirds of Cooper's and LaTourette's allies
had slunk away. Some came around afterward to sheepishly apologize.
One member, says Cooper, told him that if he hadn't voted no, his
favorite lobbyist would have been fired. In case you wondered how
budget policy gets made in Washington, there's a clue.
Fixing the budget problem will only get
harder, especially at the end of this year, when the debt limit
will run out again, the Bush tax cuts are set to expire and
punishing spending cuts will go into effect.
The belief that this fall's election will clarify voter
sentiment and make the job easier is naive. Voters almost always
send mixed messages. The job of representatives in a democracy is
to govern, which requires compromise. The fact that only 38 members
of the House did so is shameful.
Opposing views from Reps.
Paul Ryan and
Chris Van Hollen. The Brave 38
•16 Republicans:
Charles Bass, N.H.
Ann Marie Buerkle, N.Y.
Charlie Dent, Pa.
Robert Dold, Ill.
Chris Gibson,
N.Y.
Timothy Johnson, Ill.
Steve
LaTourette, Ohio
Cynthia Lummis, Wyo.
Patrick Meehan,
Pa.
Tom Petri, Wis.
Todd Platts, Pa.
Tom Reed, N.Y.
John Shimkus, Ill.
Mike Simpson,
Idaho
Frank Wolf, Va.
Don Young,
Alaska
•22 Democrats:
Robert Andrews, N.J.
Dan Boren, Okla.
Leonard
Boswell, Iowa
John Carney, Del.
James Clyburn,
S.C.
Jim Cooper, Tenn.
Jim Costa, Calif.
Henry Cuellar,
Texas
Chaka Fattah, Pa.
Jim Himes, Conn.
Ron Kind, Wis.
Rick Larsen,
Wash.
Dan Lipinski,
Ill.
Ed Perlmutter,
Colo.
Collin
Peterson, Minn.
Jared Polis,
Colo.
Mike Quigley,
Ill.
Kurt Schrader, Ore.
Allyson
Schwartz, Pa.
Heath Shuler,
N.C.
Pete Visclosky, Ind.
Mel Watt, N