Amateur Hour in our Ungovernable" Government
By Clark S. Judge
A great deal of talk has come out of Washington these last few weeks about the nation being ungovernable." What that means of course is that the White House cant find 60 votes for health care overhaul in a Senate that their party controls by 60 votes. So they are pushing the legislation through using budget reconciliation lest of course the nation prove ungovernable."
As everyone knows by now the Congress arcane reconciliation process was intended to cover strictly fiscal legislation taxes spending not the creation of entirely new programs of massive sweep.
Lots of presidents have put through major and controversial laws with Congresses much less favorable to the White House than this one. But never mind.
Unless we find a way to bend Congress to the Presidents will the nation is ungovernable."
A number of critics not all of them conservatives The Economist magazine for example (lead editorial February 20th-26th edition) have pointed out that a breakdown of the legislative process is not the real reason
the health care is stalled.
President Reagan won lower tax rates reduced discretionary spending and a military build up that won the Cold War.
President George H.W. Bush secured approval to turn back the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and dealt with major budget challenges.
After the GOP took back to Congress in 1994 President Clinton and the GOP Congressional leadership developed a tumultuous but highly productive dynamic that delivered welfare reform capital
gains tax reductions and a string of budget surpluses.
President George W. Bush passed his domestic agenda and a number of free trade agreements cut taxes twice funded the Iraqi War and got his financial rescue passage adopted virtually as designed.
None of these presidents whined about the nation being ungovernable." All understood the needs of negotiation and skills of compromise that are at the heart of our legislative process.
In their current blog posting economist and
Nobel prize winner Gary Becker and Federal appeals judge Richard Posner discuss the filibuster and its role in American governance. As Becker notes the supermajority requirement of invoking closure to cut off Senate debate is useful protection not only to minorities but also to overly hasty passage of controversial legislation.
People on all positions will sometimes be frustrated by the need to have such a supermajority but in the long run most of the time they will be happy that such rules are in effect."
Of the health care overhaul itself Posner writers Because the program is unpopular among the general public its enactment by a simple majority in both Houses would raise a valid question about the representative character of Congress."
I would go a step further.
Part of the success of the American legislative process has been its durability. Yes it is designed to produce deliberation even on issues as superheated as health overhaul. Yes it is designed to protect minority opinions against ephemeral majorities. But it is also designed to keep the nation united.
Virtually every American president has understood this imperative and tempered his programs accordingly.
Until now.
Upon taking office not one member of the circle that runs the current White House was experienced in the executive role in the legislative process.
The President was a backbench state senator for most of his government career not one of those who put together the annual packages that keep each state going. His principal aides were more in the line of professional campaigners and political enforcers than legislative negotiators.
In the subtle process of give and take of consensus and coalition building these men and women are amateurs.
Even if it results in the health overhaul package passing the resort to reconciliation reflects weakness and ineptness in the West Wing. This is one reason for the expensive and grotesque deals that have been struck along the way.
As someone who has played at the very most senior levels of the legislative process said in my presence recently You never go for just 60 senate votes." Never. Whatever the party breakdown.
Why? The 59th and 60-ieth vote becomes so expensive.
An 80-vote bill he said is much cheaper than a sixty-vote bill because no one can hold you up. No one can demand a Louisiana Purchase" or a Cornhusker Kickback."
But the amateurs at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue only understand campaigning and enforcement not give and take. It is easy to dismiss the value of experience in politics and government but particularly in developing legislation they count.
The nation is governable when those in charge understand governance.
Clark S. Judge is Managing Director of the White House Writers Group. He has written on national and international issues for The Wall Street Journal and other publications.
