Game, Set ...
by sonya hammond
Arguably [but not very], our current Congress may be the most nearsighted, most childishly determined to destroy at any cost its enemy in the White House, and the least concerned with its effect on the rest of the world ... to say nothing of failing to provide any token representation of their electorates' interests ... than any group of so-called legislators in recent [or possibly any] history.
The list of Congressional sins, omissions, and sheer stupidities ranges from
... the utterly idiotic:
The Senator from Kentucky, visually challenged and suffering from a terminal case of political denial, dismissing campaign reform on the grounds of the impossibility that any of his colleagues ever traded legislative favors for money.
... to the irresponsible:
The creative taxpayer-funded cost accounting method dreamed up by departing lawmakers, terrified that they might not spend every last cent accumulated during their tenures, that allows them to dole out thousands in 'overtime' or 'unused vacation' pay to their presumably impoverished staff members who will soon be collecting unemployment insurance.
... on to the obscene:
Gutting a gun control bill in a blatant appeasement of the NRA who apparently held assault weapons to their pointy heads as they voted.
... and eventually to the incomprehensible:
Rejection of the nuclear test ban treaty which might send the world a message of U.S. commitment to the moral high road, but could also, god forbid, could reflect well on the President.
But whatever its status in the history of legislative lunacy, this Congress has reached new heights in avoiding reality and/or common sense in its tin soldier battles with the nation's finances.
Those of us who still struggle over whether a bull or a bear market is a good thing, can only watch like tennis match fans, our heads swiveling from left to right as projections of budget surpluses are lobbed back and forth by various factions claiming virtual reality victories for excess billions that have yet even to materialize.
... The ball on the side promising billions in tax relief sends a drop shot to the other side which claims tax cuts would threaten everything from defense to the national debt.
... A Ways [to Screw the Opposition] and Means [to Dazzle Voters] Committee sends a flat serve budget to the House, where opponents gasp in horror, inspiring determined proponents to chop a few cosmetic billions.
... This leads to a backhand slice to the opposition which cuts a few amendments, and eventually the GOP sends the results in a line shot to the Senate which retaliates by threatening to reject a few billion more.
These are games in which no one keeps score, there are no rules, and no one, least of all the country, wins. Not that it would mean much to us, the helpless spectators, even if we understood it. None of our tax cuts would take effect until it becomes apparent, possibly sometime in Star Date 43625.3, that the virtual surplus is an actual surplus.
In other words, Congress dragged out the magic words 'tax cuts' [date of effect vague], and blew them up in proportion to the magic word 'surplus' [amount fluctuating], in anticipation that by the time voters figured out they weren't getting anything, Election 2000, based on voter perceptions of Congressional generosity, would be in the bag.
The operative word is, of course, 'election', an event that strikes terror into incumbents facing opposition from candidates back home who may be in actual touch with their constituencies, and can lead to sudden attacks of conscience and fiscal responsibility.
... Concern over government agency 'waste', which apparently came to light only recently, inspired a GOP move to cut agency spending by 1% 'across the board'. This attempt to control the national budget, pundits were quick to point out, would do so without touching the sacrosanct Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
Unfortunately, it did touch the favorite programs of various Committee chairmen who rose in high indignation to protest any puttering with their precious pork.
The cuts would also avoid touching legislative salaries earmarked to rise 3.4%, an accountability lapse that finally came to the attention of GOP leaders who rushed to bring in damage control. A less than altruistic 1% salary adjustment was quickly made [the poor congressional babies will have to struggle along on $139,900 a year] in an attempt to thwart accusations of congressional hypocrisy, although the savings represent a pittance in the overall budget.
OK, this may be a simplistic and financially innocent review of the situation, but working stiffs [this automatically excludes Congress] may notice the irony.
Most of us consider ourselves lucky if our checkbooks balance every month, and I'm pretty sure none of us could justify thinking up ways to spend surpluses we don't have, while at the same time admitting that due to our wasteful habits we could not survive without cutting our budgets. [The terms 'fraud' and 'bankruptcy', among others, come to mind.]
I obviously lack the expertise to see how although a $3 trillion budget surplus is projected sometime in the future, and we should start spending this windfall as quickly as possible, we need to cut the current budget or face dire consequences.
... And then, there's the Treasury Department, which apparently lives in a biosphere somewhere on Mars. The August deficit, they report, was $2.5 billion, although we should be pleased that this was smaller than last August's deficit which was $11.2 billion.
And, in spite of all this, we can still look forward to a surplus in the neighborhood of $98 billion for the current fiscal year? I don't even want to try making sense out of that one, let alone do the math.
... Meanwhile back in Congress, oblivious Republicans managed [barely] to put enough top spin on a $314 billion budget to get it over the net to the White House where the game will start over with the President brandishing a veto he promised even before the ball fell in his court.
... In the meantime, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that in spite of GOP protests to the contrary, Social Security surpluses would indeed be 'touched' if their bill were to take effect.
As if our necks weren't already suffering from spectator whiplash.
©sonya hammond, 1999