Back in August, President Barack Obama signed the bill that raises our debt ceiling and cuts spending by a little more than $2 trillion over the next decade. This bill was signed after months and months of political wrestling and wrangling over which party or politician had the better plan. Even after the final deal was grudgingly reached by both Democrat and Republican leadership in the US House and Senate, there was still much that both progressive liberals and TEA party leadership did not like.
Key staff members from the White House and leaders from both parties agreed that this bill does not solve everything. Many fiscal experts that study and monitor federal deficits agree that the bill relies too heavily on cuts to discretionary spending, which is not the major driver of the country's long-term deficits. And it all but ignores the need to reform entitlements and raise more revenue. Both of which are key ingredients to improving the country's long-term solvency.
In addition to the short-term problems, the special bipartisan congressional committee that the legislation creates could take up both entitlement and tax reform. But given the partisan bitterness on both those issues, the jury's out on whether the committee, which is made up of 12 members from the House and Senate, can move past that.
Lastly, according to CNN Money, the size of the deal is less than what hawks were pushing for. A $4 trillion "grand bargain" is what budget experts say is the minimum needed to start hitting the brakes on growth in the country's debt. The fact that negotiators were working toward such an agreement only to step back from it makes the final deal all the more frustrating.
This is our federal leadership at work. This is partisan politics mixed with bureaucratic bungling and topped with election envy. I think our leaders are forgetting what it means to compromise and work together to solve the problems of the day. In the midst of this fiasco, the behavior of GOP officials that seek to “make Obama a one-term president” reeks of junior high bravado.
Additionally, the repeated walking out of both parties during the discussion reminds me of something my son does when I restrict his time with my Playstation. All that was missing was the incessant pouting. Again, this is our leadership at work. This is our federal leadership that enjoys a 92% re-election rate, a monthly $1,400 automobile lease allowance, and an average annual salary of $174,000.
But there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. This is the opportunity to acknowledge all that really is broken with our political system and acknowledge some serious discussion and solutions to fix these problems. I’d like to propose the following solutions: (1) term limits for federally elected officials and (2) a viable third party option to challenge the current two-party system.
We have been working with the same two political parties for quite some time. And we have been getting undesired results for quite some time. People are concerned about the federal government’s spending, Bush-era tax cuts, healthcare, and the 2 ½ wars we are engaged in right now. These are issues that that been handled improperly by both Democrats and Republicans. Yet, we still have to choose the lesser of the two evils when the election season rolls around. As I understand it, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is an acceptable definition of insanity. This is where the debt ceiling debate lends itself to discussion of a viable third party.
Terms limits, in my opinion, do the following: (1) it gives the elected official a timeline and deadline to accomplish the goals he or she set forth in their campaign and (2) it lets them know that their job is temporary and they should groom a replacement. I think US Presidents and Vice-Presidents have figured this one out already.
Since one of the more recent trends are to “think of what the founding fathers would do” and “live according to the constitution”, I will offer this quote from John Adams: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
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