It’s Sunday and that means that I’ve spent the morning reading various and sundry newspapers and watching the people flap their gums on TV. In the conduct of this normally useless but sometimes edifying exercise I’ve had a revelation that will save everyone a lot of head scratching and angst: I have discovered what’s really wrong with the Federal Government. This post might be kinda long as I want to document this exciting story in some detail as it will likely end up in a museum soon.
See, I’ve just gotten over a week-long visit from the creeping crud. I missed our annual Thanksgiving visit to Richmond to see Sarah’s mom. I was well enough to go watch Osbourn crush yesterday but now Sarah was coming down with the crud. Anyway, the daughter and I went to Starbucks to get a coffee and then to ihop to get breakfast. While at Starbucks I picked up a copy of the Times. I know, I know, it’s a liberal rag but there is some really good writing in there from time to time. We brought back breakfast to the wife and we all watched the “Chris Matthews Show” and then the first 30 minutes or so of Meet the Press. After that, I perused the Times for awhile.
This revelation came to me while I was reading an interesting article in the Times about the push by the incoming republican chair of the house investigative committee. He wants to greatly expand the number of subpoena’s and investigations conducted into the government’s activities and expenditures. There’s a lot of talk in there about finding waste, fraud and abuse – always a good idea and from time to time it is actually necessary for elected leaders to take the lead in those things. However, recently it has more often been the baliwick of politicians that don’t really have any ideas but it sounds good so people vote for them. (In Virginia the usual target of these audits is VDOT)
The ugly truth is that Congress has made a mistake more common of State and local governments. Indeed, it’s a mistake that the City Council has struggled to avoid over the years and a trap that Congress, with all of the resources of our great nation at their fingertips, should easily avoid: they’re too involved. It sounds too simple but I’m telling you it’s true. The Congress is operating as staff and not as the Board of Directors to this great country. Indeed, it’s gotten so bad that we use subpoena’s and lawyers in attempts to corral spending rather than the Congress acting in their capacity as our national board and passing a budget that dictates their intent to staff. Many will argue that this is simplistic but my rebuttal is that it only works when it is just that simple.
If you disagree, please point out to me what is working so well in Congress that it’s worth keeping? The Congress routinely fails to pass a budget and the budget needs to be the primary guidance to the Executive branch and the civil servants in Washington as to what the citizens of the country want done. If we need to cut spending, the parties need to get together and pass a budget that cuts spending. It’s about governance, not parties being preeminent for long periods of time. Game-playing and compromising principals works for awhile but watch the Sunday talkies or read a conservative blog and somewhere mentioned on there will be the TEA PARTY.
Indeed, the Republican party has so severely compromised it’s principals over the years (and not in pursuit of our national interest) that it is in danger of being consumed from the inside out by a movement led by a woman who few (including me) hold in any regard. In a day when we have great choices like Barbour, Daniels, Romney and others, the Queen Bee of the party is a woman who couldn’t even tough out a single term in our least populous state. Sure, she draws crowds and writes books but so does Obama. Her vision of what the election is about is the same as an election for High School president. The election might be a popular contest but the stakes are so much higher. Despite all of that, the problem with the Tea Party is not its ideas. I find it hard, in principal, the disagree with many of them. Many of those I talk with echo similar sentiments.
My call to Congress is this: get out of every nook and cranny. Get together with the President and decide what the strategic vision is. Fight it out but come to some conclusion. You might not have much in common but some common ground has to be found. Make the decisions simpler, not more complicated.
After all, you can only crap in your nest for so long before it causes a problem…..