116 Years of the Same

By Jason Colella, Sr. Political Editor & Co-founder

Picture provided by Wikipedia

“There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests up on them.” This may sound like something that any mainstream Democrat may have said during this election cycle, but that would be wrong. It was, indeed, said by a Democrat at a National Convention, but not recently. William Jennings Bryan said this during his 1896 Presidential Acceptance Speech, which would later come to be known as the Cross of Gold Speech.

Bryan was right about Supply Side Economics before it was even invented. Maybe the world would have been better off if Reagan, Hayek, and Freidman idolized Bryan instead of an Adam Smith that he himself would not have recognized and would have vehemently opposed. The Wealth of Nations does agree with Bryan’s statement, but Republicans seem to forget that anyone with the ability to read and curiosity could find that out. The fundamental flaw in the Republican economic mindset is simple – they think rich people have no self-control. It assumes that if you give a millionaire a million dollars, he will spend it all. Has the idea of saving ever occur to them? The other issue is, just as obvious, rich people buy and do rich people things like play polo and buy designer clothes - which has little to no economic impact on the average working class American. The very people this ludicrous idea was intended to help.
Now to the non-economic point his statement brings up. It showcases a trait of American political thought that is often incorrectly assumed to be nonexistent – consistency. The Republicans have consistently run on the same bad and ill-informed economic policy for the last 116 years. Congratulations. We think politics today is so partisan, so gridlocked, so ideological, and so ineffective. But, I hate to be the bearer of bad news; it has always been that way and, quite frankly, will always be that way.

Congress is partisan, and it always has been. Preston Brooks, a congressman, nearly beat to death Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the US Senate over a political difference in 1857. Eric Cantor and Boehner have yet to beat up a Democrat. Today the violence is verbal attacks in the press, and even those as vitriolic, as they may be, that are not libelous or crude. We are more civilized in our discourse, which goes to show you how messed we have been and how messy democracy truly is. Congress is partisan because of the people it attracts. People run for office, not because Congress is such a high paying job with great perks like many disenfranchised Americans will tell you. They run because they have strong views that they want others to not only to hear and believe, but be forced to follow. Honestly, most of them could, and did, make much more money in their past life than as a congressman.

Gridlock and inefficacy does run rampant in the government, but it can be dealt with. Elected officials need to be open minded and willing to negotiate, which many of them are incapable of doing today because of their strong ideology footing. It is not, however, their fault that their views are as unyielding as a raging bull – stubborn and crazy – it is the electorate for electing them to office. Quit electing nut jobs. I mean, I have a poor view of the fine Americans who live in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional district because they have elected Michelle Bachman repeatedly. Gridlock and inefficacy can keep people from doing horrible idiotic things. Sometimes doing nothing can be better than doing things, especially when action results in stupid decisions.

Bryan has two key pieces of advice to offer. First, Republicans have always had a poor taste in economic policy, and secondly the concept of political consistency. Government seems bad, but it always has been bad. It is not so much the fault of the politicians because most are well meaning when they get there; it is rather the fault of voters who take the tremendous privilege of participating in the greatest experiment in social theory ever undertaken not seriously enough, and a flawed system that promotes gridlock. As Winston Churchill said, ’’No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.’’

Talking Points: Why the Fiscal Cliff Deal is A Big Step in the Right Direction

By: William Snyder, Managing Editor Fourth Party Politics

 

Earlier in the week one of my colleagues wrote an article about the fiscal cliff deal and how Congress always “fixes the tire” by means of plugging the hole instead of replacing the tire. He wrote that the fiscal cliff deal was one of Congresses many “crazy short term fixes that do absolutely nothing to solve the countries long term issues.” I must say I have to disagree.

In the real world you can’t always get what you want. Late last week it appeared that the country was well on its way to going over the fiscal cliff. With the Speaker’s failed Plan B strategy all talks between the two sides had stopped. Then enter Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Sunday night McConnell swallowed his pride and put in a phone call to one of his old senate colleagues, Vice President Joe Biden. Biden and Senate leaders reached a bipartisan compromise on the fiscal cliff that would allow tax rates to rise on income over $400,000 and delay steep automatic federal spending cuts for two months.

 

Once McConnell and Boehner reach out over the aisle the President and Congressional Democrats had no choice but to accept the deal. President Obama had an entirely new agenda that he could not risk compromising before the 113th Congress was even gaveled into session. When one party puts their entire neck out on the line like Speaker Boehner did by breaking ranks with the majority of his caucus, the other party must step up to the plate and accept. Progressives could not afford to walk away from the deal if they wanted to accomplished any of their major agenda items in the next term, like gun control and campaign finance.

 

Progressives got a good deal as it was:

• Taxes Raised on Incomes Over $450,000 (Signal Household $400,000)
• Capital Gains Tax Raised to 20%
• Estate Tax Raised to 40%
• Extended Unemployment Insurance Benefits
• Childcare Tax Credits 
• College Tax Credits 
• Limited Deductions
• Extends the Farm Bill
• ZERO cuts to Social Security/Medicare

The 112th Congress went down in history as being the most unproductive Congress in existence. They passed the fewest amount of legislation in over 100 years and had the lowest approval ratings since we've been keeping track of that kind of thing. So maybe we can look at this landmark compromise that ended the legislative session as a step in the right direction. Maybe we can give credit where credit is due to Republican Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for brokering an unpopular deal with their own members. They broke ranks with many in their respective caucuses to do something for the greater good of their constituents. To end what will go down as the worst Congress on record with a bipartisan deal gives me hope for what the 113th Congress has in store.

Too many politically astute people forget that compromise is not a dirty word. You are never going to get all of what you want simply because that is not compromise; that is greed. My suggestion to my Democratic friends: if you don’t like messy compromise and dived government, elect more progressives to Congress in 2014.

Despite what you’ll hear from many progressives, this is a desirable compromise. By no means is it perfect, but what compromise is perfect?