Where are the Leaders?

The drama surrounding the potential shutdown of the federal government has reached a level we haven’t seen on daytime TV since the OJ Simpson chase. The budget game has been going on now for almost a year with no winner. The goal is to reach an agreement and pass a budget BEFORE the start of the fiscal year. If you do everyone wins. If you don’t pass a budget before 1 October no-one wins. But...to keep everyone from losing you use a budgetary tool called magic.

Actually it’s called a Continuing Resolution Authority or CRA but it works like magic. Under a CRA, the government can continue to operate at the same levels as the previous year. Sounds ok right? Unless of course you hired a few new folks, or gave someone a raise or promotion, or want to start a new program. One of the unique restrictions of operating under a CRA is the stipulation that there can be no “new starts”. If you were not doing it last year then you can’t start it under a CRA. And there is the problem…think about the number of government programs that may start in a given year. It is a lot more than you think. I am most familiar with the Defense industry where a CRA means delays in funding for contracts that you may have been ready to start as soon as the budget was signed and the money was available. Which means layoffs and no new hiring for the many jobs that would have been created to support new programs.

I don’t know about you but I have a problem with that. Congress can’t get past their playground politics and do their jobs, so more Americans are out of work. The longer the CRA runs, the more people lose. Now to be fair, CRAs are not uncommon and they generally aren’t that disruptive, because the budget is usually passed by the first of the year. This year however there are so many juicy political balls being juggled around in Washington that our elected servants don’t have time to notice the impact of their incompetence on the American people. They really only have time to look for opportunities to play “gotcha” and work on the next set of talking points so they can talk over the reported who ask hard questions without answering any hard questions. Perhaps the biggest travesty this year is that we are still without agreement on April 6 when so many reasonable options have been presented. The bipartisan Bowles Simpson deficit commission released their recommendations on November 10, 2010. I am sure it wasn’t a perfect solution but it recommended reductions in federal spending as well as tax changes (reducing many credits and deductions) with a total impact of just over $200 Billion. Congressman Paul Ryan has recently proposed a $2 decrease in spending for every $1 increase in taxes. A bit simplistic but it’s a start and moves us toward the kind of decision that must be made if we are to get out of this mess.

When times are tough we must have leaders who are willing to lead the country rather than a party. We need people who can see past the next election and make the hard calls that although unpopular today, will prove to be right in the end It’s not about winning polls or elections, its about the economy stupid.