Some recent headlines read: "Partisan Bickering Continues," "Partisan Bickering Over Katrina Escalates," and "Poll: Americans Tired of Partisan Bickering." But what would American politics be without bickering?
Two words: Greatly improved.
My dictionary says that to bicker is to have a petty quarrel. A petty quarrel is a trivial and insignificant one. Alas, even headlines proclaim that Congress is trivializing its important role and avoiding the tougher issues, such as the federal government's enormous and runaway growth.
Optimally voters could choose more government or less by voting for one major party or the other. Then the battles between the parties would be substantive, and not be trivial. Government would get bigger or smaller depending on the parties' respective votes.
However, where both major parties are walking in the same direction, their differences become less significant. They don't argue about the course of our country, but how fast we march down the course we're on. They don't really battle over the direction of budgets anymore. They bicker over how fast government should get big.
I call this biggering. Biggering is what the big parties do.
Congress' petty budget squabbles are like movie protagonists Thelma and Louise arguing over what speed to drive their convertible off the cliff. It's as if we've already voted to put our nation on a course to be second-rate; now we're just biggering over how much gas to fuel our demise.
As Congress broke Friday for a two-week vacation, biggering had left work undone on a budget reconciliation bill. The week before, the Senate Budget Committee endorsed spending cuts of $39 billion over the next five years. These cuts amount to a mere 0.3 percent (one-third of one percent) of projected federal spending.
Last Thursday, House Republicans narrowly enacted $50 billion in budget cuts over the next five years. Their bill reduces spending by a petty $5.6 billion in the 2006 budget of $2.5 trillion. This represents an annual savings of only $50 to families with $50,000 incomes. It amounts to just 3 percent of the $1.6 trillion in deficits projected for the five-year period.
This is all the result of petty biggering ... and our votes for petty biggerers.
Congressional spending has exceeded tax revenues for 45 of the last 50 years. The U.S. Treasury Department reports that the public debt exceeds $8 trillion, and $6 trillion of this has occurred during the last twenty years. Last year the federal government spent $2.3 trillion and ran a $412 billion deficit - that's $1.42 spent for every dollar brought in. This compares with the $1.8 trillion the government spent and the rare $86 billion surplus it found during President Clinton's final year in office.
President Bush's budget submission in February projected $3 trillion more of deficits by 2010. A public debt of $11.2 trillion amounts to $38,000 for each American. By 2010, the interest alone will cost Americans $561 billion - more than the $420 billion that we spend annually on the U.S. military.
This situation is intolerable. Within a few years, American taxpayers will be pressed and squeezed to pay more interest to creditors, much of which goes out of this country, than it costs us to support the world's greatest military. It's all because the big parties are out-biggering each other. They can hardly reduce the outrageous growth of government, let alone make even minor cuts to the voracious monster they've created.
At least, that's what Republican leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) suggested several weeks ago. He said that "no one has been able to come up with any [spending cuts] yet" and that the Republican majority had "pared down [federal spending] pretty good." Biggerer Barney Frank (D-MA) went further, saying Republicans have "shrunk the government, until now it's not there at all."
Biggering, truth-stretching and other political perversions come from lack of sound moral principles. One principle is that the best government governs least. Another is that governments shouldn't spend more than they take in. Simple principles.
So how did the Republican-controlled Congress reward itself last Friday for its constant unprincipled biggering? With a $3,100 pay raise, of course!
Two words: Greatly improved.
My dictionary says that to bicker is to have a petty quarrel. A petty quarrel is a trivial and insignificant one. Alas, even headlines proclaim that Congress is trivializing its important role and avoiding the tougher issues, such as the federal government's enormous and runaway growth.
Optimally voters could choose more government or less by voting for one major party or the other. Then the battles between the parties would be substantive, and not be trivial. Government would get bigger or smaller depending on the parties' respective votes.
However, where both major parties are walking in the same direction, their differences become less significant. They don't argue about the course of our country, but how fast we march down the course we're on. They don't really battle over the direction of budgets anymore. They bicker over how fast government should get big.
I call this biggering. Biggering is what the big parties do.
Congress' petty budget squabbles are like movie protagonists Thelma and Louise arguing over what speed to drive their convertible off the cliff. It's as if we've already voted to put our nation on a course to be second-rate; now we're just biggering over how much gas to fuel our demise.
As Congress broke Friday for a two-week vacation, biggering had left work undone on a budget reconciliation bill. The week before, the Senate Budget Committee endorsed spending cuts of $39 billion over the next five years. These cuts amount to a mere 0.3 percent (one-third of one percent) of projected federal spending.
Last Thursday, House Republicans narrowly enacted $50 billion in budget cuts over the next five years. Their bill reduces spending by a petty $5.6 billion in the 2006 budget of $2.5 trillion. This represents an annual savings of only $50 to families with $50,000 incomes. It amounts to just 3 percent of the $1.6 trillion in deficits projected for the five-year period.
This is all the result of petty biggering ... and our votes for petty biggerers.
Congressional spending has exceeded tax revenues for 45 of the last 50 years. The U.S. Treasury Department reports that the public debt exceeds $8 trillion, and $6 trillion of this has occurred during the last twenty years. Last year the federal government spent $2.3 trillion and ran a $412 billion deficit - that's $1.42 spent for every dollar brought in. This compares with the $1.8 trillion the government spent and the rare $86 billion surplus it found during President Clinton's final year in office.
President Bush's budget submission in February projected $3 trillion more of deficits by 2010. A public debt of $11.2 trillion amounts to $38,000 for each American. By 2010, the interest alone will cost Americans $561 billion - more than the $420 billion that we spend annually on the U.S. military.
This situation is intolerable. Within a few years, American taxpayers will be pressed and squeezed to pay more interest to creditors, much of which goes out of this country, than it costs us to support the world's greatest military. It's all because the big parties are out-biggering each other. They can hardly reduce the outrageous growth of government, let alone make even minor cuts to the voracious monster they've created.
At least, that's what Republican leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) suggested several weeks ago. He said that "no one has been able to come up with any [spending cuts] yet" and that the Republican majority had "pared down [federal spending] pretty good." Biggerer Barney Frank (D-MA) went further, saying Republicans have "shrunk the government, until now it's not there at all."
Biggering, truth-stretching and other political perversions come from lack of sound moral principles. One principle is that the best government governs least. Another is that governments shouldn't spend more than they take in. Simple principles.
So how did the Republican-controlled Congress reward itself last Friday for its constant unprincipled biggering? With a $3,100 pay raise, of course!