To Compromise

For John, BLUF:  Not every compromise is a good deal for the voters.

---

Writing in a recent edition of USA Today, Messrs Michael O’Hanlon, Senior Fellow and Director of Research, Foreign Policy at Brookings, and David Petraeus, Former CIA Director; Former Commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, suggest Washington "Compromise on budget".

As Congress heads home for its August recess, huge political storms are brewing over a budget impasse that will confront lawmakers when they return.  The House is basing its annual spending bills on one set of relatively draconian budgetary assumptions, the Senate on a whole different set.  And hanging over everything is the need for another extension of the debt ceiling to keep the government running.

In fairness to Democrats and Republicans, the paralysis is largely based on principle, not parochialism or pettiness.  Democrats typically want to protect entitlements and other assistance for middle-income Americans, who have suffered significantly in recent years.

Republicans tend to worry that the burgeoning growth in entitlements, especially Social Security and Medicare, must be checked — and soon.  While they agree that the middle class is beleaguered, Republicans view tax relief as a better response than government programs.

Here is how it ends up:

If we had extremely high tax and spending burdens like some European countries, Tea Partiers might be right that it was time for a showdown about the country's future.  Or, if entitlements were about to be savaged by a heartless right wing, Democrats might be right to defend them at all costs.

In fact, our budget choices today are much more palatable.  Tax rates are lower than they were under President Clinton, and virtually no one wants to raise them massively.  Entitlements have just been expanded under a Republican president and continue to grow faster than inflation, and virtually no one is proposing that we actually cut them. So we have space within which to compromise.

Finally, Washington should not exaggerate government's role in our economic future.  Beyond the Beltway, the gradual recovery of the housing market, the reinvigoration of domestic energy production and U.S. manufacturing, exciting progress in new technologies such as cyber and 3-D printing, and the ongoing electronics revolution are beginning to bring our economy back — and our deficit down.

Washington does not need to be the only answer.  It just needs to avoid being the main problem — and then live to fight another budget battle as the parties seek new mandates from the voters in 2014 and 2016.  That is how it is supposed to work. That is why Congress and the president should seek a compromise deal now.

This is just another chance to take a swipe at the Tea Party and to say lets all compromise and go with more spending.  This was unhelpful.

Regards  —  Cliff