RIGHTING THE SHIP OF STATE

Congress and the White House are stumbling toward a temporary deal to reopen the Federal Government and raise the national debt.

This temporary fix does not solve any of the fundamental problems with government spending, fiscal management, or health policy. All it does is pull everyone back from the brink and give them limited time to find common ground.

Washington’s spiral into chaos and crisis began years ago. It accelerated after the 2010 elections. The debris field includes not just both political parties. The faith Americans and the rest of the world have in the functionality of the Federal Government is severely damaged. It is going to take more than a “grand bargain” on the budget to repair that damage.

During the descent into madness, all combatants displayed their willingness to destroy the fundamental fabric of America’s civic culture in order to win rhetorical points during ever smaller news cycles. Politicians and pundits acted as though America was a parliamentary democracy, where a legislative defeat would bring down the government, force the resignation of public officials, and trigger new elections.

Our Founding Fathers intentionally designed America’s rules of engagement to avoid the “all or nothing” confrontations that shape British legislation. Fixed terms of office were supposed to force opponents to work together and govern instead of remain in a constant campaign. The U.S. Constitution’s brilliance and resilience stems from practicality, not idealism. That said, it is going to take an historic effort on everyone’s part to repair the damage and restore trust in our institutions of government.

Unfortunately, many involved in these recent political battles seem to want to permanently undermine these institutions of government. "We are looking for an Egyptian moment here! Enough tyranny...” trumpeted an organizer for the truckers’ protest that ended up being more bluster than reality. Other political voices are advocating continued unrest and chaos. Some now champion nullification (ignoring the rules) or a constitutional convention to completely change the rules.

During 226 years living in a Constitutional Republic, Americans have weathered terrible, corrupt, and incompetent Presidents, tolerated dysfunctional and “do nothing” Congresses, and have had to retry and overturn ill-conceived Supreme Court rulings. No matter how bad things got, Americans and their civic culture persevered without risking collapse (save for our Civil War).

It is therefore dismaying that things got so far out of hand during this recent confrontation. The level of righteous ignorance about government functions and processes, the uncivil and abusive accusations about opposing agendas, and the shrill demagogy have created a hole in the fabric of our system that will take time and creativity to repair. Record low levels of support and trust in our elected leaders and record high levels of dissatisfaction must be addressed.

One possible way to rebuild rational discourse and productive engagement is to experiment with crowd sourcing and facilitated discussion. Go to http://onlinetownhalls.com/start/90 to join in an online conservation to test out a new community engagement tool.

Online Townhalls is used by professional and business groups to aggregate opinion and facilitate consensus. In 2012, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the U.S. State Department used Online Townhalls to engage citizens in 35 nations using four languages to support the Summit of the Americas.

Here is a 7-minute video that explains how to use Online Townhalls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW2OLEM-qeE

Another way to learn about Online Townhalls is to follow a sample conversation based on the famous movie “Twelve Angry Men”. This tracks the jury’s consideration of trial evidence. http://onlinetownhalls.com/read/6

One online tool is only a very small step toward re-establishing sanity and decorum in our public processes. Just like after a wind storm, you start the recovery process by picking up the first downed branches. While chainsaws and a tree removal service may become part of the clean-up process, you have to start somewhere.

The recovery from our most recent political storm will take more than a few months. It will probably take years. We all must start somewhere. Your ideas are welcome! We must all pitch in. Perhaps trying out http://onlinetownhalls.com/start/90 is a good first step.

MESSAGE DISCIPLINE

Republicans need a remedial communications course. They have flunked every test during the budget/shut down battle.

Republicans have also failed political strategy 101. They are fighting the wrong battle, in the wrong way, at the wrong time. A key element to any political struggle is advocating viable alternative actions and/or policies to those you oppose. Kicking the table over is not a policy.

The most embarrassing aspect of the government shutdown is how it is undoing Republican assertions. This shutdown was supposed to stop Obamacare in its tracks, when, in fact, Obamacare is being implemented. Signing-up on health exchanges opened the very day the government shut down to stop Obamacare. Worse, media coverage of the shut down drowned-out news stories on the wobbly start to Obamacare. Media 101 – you never step on your own headline. Obamacare’s glitches would have helped build the Republican case for strategic action toward a complete overhaul or repeal. That story is now lost to the ages.

The embarrassments continue hourly. Republicans rail against Public Broadcasting - voting to defund it every year. The government is shut down and PBS and National Public Radio are providing full programming. Such disconnects between rhetoric and reality makes the GOP look clueless on how government is actually funded. That is not the best place from which to launch a fiscal fight over the debt.

Republicans are also displaying their utter powerlessness to impact the Executive Branch. President Obama can pick and choose what to shut down with impunity. He knows it will be months before the House Oversight Committee or the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will second guess his actions. So what if they find he was arbitrary and capricious? There will be no consequences, political or legal. So America gets to watch as National Parks are shut down (a list of the more over the top closings may be found at: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/05/list-obama-closures-for-shutdown), while pro-Obama political rallies are allowed on the “closed” National Mall (immigration reform). Government websites that serve Americans are offline (even Pandacam), but the primary government website that serves the government – www.USAJobs.gov is still scooping up applications for currently unfunded federal jobs.

The current budget battle began in the summer of 2011. Republicans have always been on shaky ground because of their own 14-year binge of spending and earmarking (1997-2011). They have never done anything to counter their fundamental lapse in Republican fiscal orthodoxy. Shouting within the conservative media echo chamber is not winning the broader argument with all of America.

One major Republican mistake was making reasonable fiscal management a partisan issue. In the 1970’s, Rep. John Ashbrook, one of the most conservative members of Congress, and Senator William Proxmire, one of the Senate’s most liberal members, coordinated their exposing of government waste. Ashbrook spoofed “goofy grants” while Proxmire issued monthly “Golden Fleece” awards. They both understood that “waste is waste” no matter which Party is responsible. Today only a handful of politicians and pundits transcend partisanship for true spending oversight and accountability, notably Senator Tom Coburn and journalist John Stossel. Unfortunately, neither receives the attention they deserve.

Many so-called conservative pundits and think tanks remained silently complicit during the Republican spending binge and the gross mismanagement of the executive branch under George W. Bush. The moment a Democratic President and Congress picked up where Bush and his GOP Congressional allies left off it was like Rip van Winkle awakening from a long slumber and wondering how things got so bad.

The Tea Party is filled with Rip van Winkles. They poured into Congressional town hall meetings in August 2009 screeching about a health program that was originally the Republican’s multi-payer alternative to Hillarycare’s single-payer system. Multi-payer healthcare was trumpeted by the Heritage Foundation and implemented by Governor Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. It was the preferred GOP way forward – until Obama’s name was attached to it. Even now, the “Affordable Care Act” polls better than “Obamacare” even though they are different names for the same program. One’s arguments lose all credibility and integrity when it is all about who proposes something, not what is being proposed.

So what can Republicans do?

First, they can get off their treadmill to oblivion. As proposed in [http://citizenoversight.blogspot.com/2013/09/kamikaze-congress.html], Speaker Boehner can allow a clean Continuing Resolution to be voted on in the House. He can hold his Republicans off the Floor and not have them vote on it. This means the Democrats “own” the CR and Obamacare funding. The focus shifts back to the flawed launch of the Affordable Care Act and making a reasonable case for reform or repeal.

Second, shift the focus to raising the debt ceiling. Cede the fact that the debt ceiling is driven by previous spending actions. America has to pay the bills it rang up. That said, there are ways to add reasonable and rational provisions to rein-in spending.

Three ideas come to mind.

- Control the fourth quarter spending binge. Put a 25% of fiscal year spending cap on the 4th quarter of each fiscal year. [http://citizenoversight.blogspot.com/2013/08/budget-bacchanal.html]
- Mandate a budget sweep of unspent and unobligated accounts. [http://citizenoversight.blogspot.com/2013/07/congressional-coinstar.html] Over $687 billion sits unused in accounts across the government. Put it to use.
- Start managing the federal workforce. [http://citizenoversight.blogspot.com/2013/02/fear-loathing-in-washington-dc.html ] As referenced earlier in the column, federal jobs are still being advertized and applications being collected. How many of these jobs are considered “non-essential”? Instead of furloughs, do hiring freezes, and job eliminations via the 60,000 retirements each year. Over $350 billion would be saved from these actions.

No thinking human being will be able to counter these prudent nonpartisan steps toward fiscal sanity. The only exception is Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who recently declared the cupboard bare of places to cut spending.

These simple and immediate acts would help Republicans reclaim the high ground of sound fiscal management, transcending partisanship. Whether you love a program or hate it, you should not want even one penny misspent. Accountability, transparency, and efficiency attract adherents across the entire political spectrum.

Finding and eradicating waste is just the first step. After recovering their footing, Republicans could revisit the Simpson Bowles debt reduction plan and Senator Coburn’s annual “Waste Book”. Some of these items are more partisan, but these vetted ideas can guide the foray into deeper political waters. Those who lead such a realistic and rational effort will find followers among the 230 million registered voters, not just the Tea Party and Fox News. Republicans – the choice is yours.

Republican Opportunities Lost

This was published in RollCall

http://www.rollcall.com/news/faulkner_and_riehl_republican_opportunities_lost-222193-1.html?pg=1

By Scot Faulkner & Jonathan Riehl

Republicans are wondering how to confront President Obama’s second term “second wind”. In recent weeks, Obama has proven he is no Lame duck. His new initiatives, new appointments, and winning the word wars on the budget, have overwhelmed Republicans both in Congress and among their pundits. After ceding 789 days of political positioning to their opponents since the GOP’s 2010 victories, Republicans have now spent the first weeks of 2013 contemplating their navels while bungling opportunities to make a difference.

Only in the Republican’s parallel universe could supposedly intelligent people sift through the electoral debris of 2012 and think that their only challenge is creating better campaign ads with better media soundbites. Worse, they arrived at this epiphany after listening to political consultants, who derive their income from creating these campaign ads and soundbites. These are the same consultants who spent hundreds of millions the GOP’s money being 100% wrong in their assumptions, polls, and predictions throughout 2012.

Congressional Republicans in particular should look into the mirror to find who to blame for their current predicament.

Since decisively winning the November 2, 2010 elections, Republicans in Congress and their acolytes in the conservative media, have missed hundreds of days of opportunity to define themselves and present compelling alternative policies. The reality is that Republicans have no platform. In fact, they no longer have a coherent idea of who they are. They are also so “inbred” in their politics that they no longer see the need for making a rational case for any of their stands. There is simply no content behind their message.

The dreadful examination of Sen. Chuck Hagel is a case in point. Hectoring diatribes from fellow Republicans over the war in Iraq only perpetuate the image of conservatives unwilling to reflect on their actions in light of the facts. Never mind that as a traditional conservative, Hagel’s view on the Iraqi misadventure was much more in line with decades of conservative thinking prior to the NeoCon takeover of GOP foreign policy.

The recent Pew Survey shows Americans disapprove of Republican Congressional leadership by 66% while only 19% approved. That is a staggering 47 point negative. Gallup’s survey is equally horrific, with 25% approving and 67% disapproving for a 42 point negative gap.

These dreadful scores are only part of the problem. President Obama and Congressional Democrats are framing the Fiscal Cliff/Debt Ceiling/Budget battle in ways highly favorable to their cause while painting Republicans into a microscopic corner. This is smart rhetorical strategy, and stands to marginalize the GOP into oblivion.

Politics often comes down to defining the terms of battle, something both parties have excelled at during different moments in history. Democrats have the upper hand at this particular moment. Republicans, even moderates (those few that remain), are now called “extremists.” Democrats, even radicals, are now called “Progressives." Government spending is now called “investment,” thanks to a spin factory gem from Bill Clinton. Spending cuts of any magnitude are dismissed as damaging to America’s economic recovery. The Republican response is either mired in bureaucratic language unknowable to normal people, or piled up with hyperpartisan rhetoric that leaves no room for compromise.

As the Hagel hearing demonstrated, Republicans have been vague about government waste and the need to cut spending. They trumpet their ideology, but ideology is not governance -- and Americans continue to see the President as more competent in that task. The problem is that the GOP never issued a meaningful indictment or offered a prosecution brief. It is also sad that Republicans refuse to admit that the bureaucracy and spending at the Pentagon are as bloated as any other department. Republicans seem to fixate on shiny objects, like rows of medals on uniforms, instead of targeting wasteful spending and management at the DOD.

Perhaps this is what the psychologists call cognitive dissonance -- Republicans are now mostly unwilling to hold serious hearings on government spending or mismanagement, because many of them blindly supported Bush-era spending boondoggles both foreign and domestic. Bereft of principle, and caught in hypocrisy of their own making, Republicans have little to stand on. The GOP did not even hold hearings on Senator Tom Coburn’s annual Waste Report, a longtime staple of reasonable oversight. Only CSPAN’s BookTV gave Coburn a proper forum to discuss his exhaustive and highly credible research on government waste.

Having one party dominate policy and legislation while the other retreats into mindless and sporadic venting of anger is unhealthy for America. Those who wish to hold power accountable, and desire a reasonable dialogue on the role and cost of government in the 21st Century, must stage an intervention. The elephant is sick and its infirmity harms all of us.