I was out sick during most of the budget action over the weekend and yesterday, so in getting caught up I’m finding myself more than underwhelmed. The deal struck isn’t big enough, doesn’t really reform entitlements, and hits defense too hard. I know, I know, it’s a compromise, which by its nature means most political watchers will find it unsatisfying. And it is amusing to hear the howling from the left about Obama’s latest “capitulation” or whatever. I do think he played a weak hand poorly, but he did get one big win, and that’s the move to take the debt ceiling high enough to get past the next election. Now he only has to run on his dismal stewardship of the economy, his administration’s attacks on the states, and his weak foreign policy.
It still seems to me, though, that the GOP didn’t get enough in the way of real structural reform. Two things need to happen, as soon as possible, to force some real discipline on Washington. One is the ending of baseline budgeting. The other is sun-setting federal agencies.
Baseline budgeting assumes current spending levels plus inflation as the baseline for budgeting year to year. It’s this practice that turns actual spending increases into “cuts” in CBO scores, and which has allowed Democrats to keep growing government decade after decade no matter who is in the White House or whether they’re declaring the era of big government over or just taking a breather. Baseline budgeting is a deception and it feeds the Beltway Beast. Congress needs to end it. And the GOP presidential candidates need to make it a major campaign issue, to start the discussion and force Obama to defend it or abandon it.
The second change that might turn Washington around is sun-setting federal agencies. Every few years, the EPA, NLRB, Department of Education, HUD, etc should face the real possibility of extinction (DoD would be exempt). These agencies tend to behave as if they’re not accountable to the people, and mission creep has made them nearly tyrannical. This would have to be done with some shrewdness and independence built into the review, or the agencies will simply show how aggressive they have been in expanding their mission to justify their continuation. These agencies need to be forced to show that they’re living within their means and living within their statutory missions, not growing them.
We also need a balanced budget amendment to force the government to live within its means. The debt deal apparently includes an eventual vote on that, at least.
Bryan, you have been a brilliant addition to PJM. I find myself waiting for your next essay, as I do with VDH.
This one is right on the money. Great work.
cfbleachers, I agree with every word you wrote.
Have you ever tried to wrestle a piney-wood boar’s snout out of a trough? They are big, incredibly strong and stubborn animals. Trying to forcibly move them when they are gorging themselves, you will first encounter passive resistance by the hog attempting to make itself (successfully) into an immovable object. If you continue in your efforts the hog will then resort to violence and attempt ( again successfully) to kick your butt. I dont mean just an ordinary butt-kicking either, I mean the kind that is likely to land you in a hospital or a grave.
There are two ways to keep the boar from gobbling up everything so that all the piglets get to eat also;
1. Feed the piglets first and dole the food out in small bits to the boar.
2. Shoot the boar.
Unless you are willing to watch the piglets starve, these are your only two options.
Y’all didnt read my post. You are all pointing out that the boar’s snout is in the trough too deep and he is gobbling up too much slop. You keep telling each other ” hey you grab his ear and I will get an arm under him, you over there, try gettin him by the front legs!” It aint gonna work.
Sunsetting agencies will have the same effect as enacting temporary taxes. Zero based budgeting will set bureaucrats into a frenzy of inventing new tasks and goals for each budget year instead of the current practice of exaggerating ongoing expenses. A balanced budget amendment will have to have some kind of exception built into it in cases of emergency. Those emergencies will be conjured up immediately and be perpetual. In other words, whatever measures you take, they will find a way around it.
We can limit the amount of income the government receives ( % of GDP?)by law, i.e. dole the slop out to the boar in small increments.
We can put very short term limits on all government offices except the military. Eliminate all the current perks of the jobs and put government slugs into the same services we taxpayers enjoy; Social Security, medicare etc., i.e. shoot the boar.
Both would be best.
Bryan, you are clearly a Hobbit who has yet to return to his hole.
Here’s another idea: Get the Tea Party “purists” to lay off the pork:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/opinion/pork-earmarks-what-do-you-mean.html?_r=1&hp
Sunset provisions are a start, but once the program is reauthorized there are no mechanisms in place to demand accountability and (gasp) meaningful results.
Washington needs to learn three words: Zero-Based Budgeting.
All cabinet positions and Federal programs should be subjected to true zero-based budgeting and required to make a sound business case every year or two justifying their continued existence.
Defense is the most basic, essential service the government provides, but it too should have limits, which can only be exceeded with a sound business case.
The book, National Suicide, has some good recommendations regarding consolidating cabinet positions and susetting/streamlining programs to immediately slow the money hemorrhage. Our leaders of all stripes seem to lack the spine to tackle the truly tough work that is required.
Another thing, related to federal agencies like the EPA, way too many of them violate the separation of powers. The EPA for instance both passes laws, enforces them, and judges disputes involving its laws. That needs to be broken up into its proper branches. Get rid of the ALJ (Administrative Law Judges) entirely; place enforcement clearly in the executive branch; analysis of the environment and advice on laws pertaining thereto should go to an organization directly accountable and reporting to Congress. And its reports (and all data) should be public, for maximum cross-checking and accountability.
That rube goldberg machine that passes for legislation will only last until the balance of power in washington changes. If one side gets control in the 2012 elections then they will replace this legislation with something more to their liking.
I totally agree, although you cast some of the actions of the agencies as ‘nearly tyrannical’.
If government can tell you what you can do on your own property, what kind of light bulb you can use, how much water your toilet and shower can use, what kind of healthcare you must have, and on and on, the word ‘nearly’ doesn’t belong in that sentence.
Good point, Saddleburr. I’ve marked through the “nearly.” The EPA, at least, is a full bore tyrant.
And how much fuel-efficiency cars are required to have to be manufactured or driven in the USA.
I don’t want to drive a Yugo or a tiny, itsy-bitsy, lightweight vehicle. I’m 6 foot 7. I couldn’t squeeze into a minuscule, fuel-efficient car if I tried.
How dare the EPA endanger the safety of my little ones, my wife and me by forcing us into a cardboard toy car? I don’t see federal government officials arriving anywhere in anything less than a big, heavy SUV. Why? They want to survive a crash.
Well, so do I.
Not just agencies, but entire volumes of the Code of Federal Regulations need to be sunsetted. With prejudice.
Also there needs to be a better separation of powers – and of funding – by appropriate level of government. Too much of the federal debt is payoffs to states, counties, cities, towns and governmental districts which each have taxing power and ought to live within their own means.
“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!” ~ Ronald Reagan
I suspect any attempt to force government agencies to justify their existence will only lead to a new government agency to oversee said justification, and this new bureaucracy will quickly exceed its mandate, and pursue an agenda even more tyrannical than those it was created to reign in.
While GOP presidential candidates should make baseline budgeting a campaign issue, I think they also need to highlight the wasteful redundancy in government that was so beautifully – and painfully – illustrated by David Steinberg in this article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/what-we%E2%80%99re-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-big-government/