Tragedy of the Trillions
“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a disgrace, that two become a law firm, and that three or more become a congress." - John Adams
Imagine if your family budgeted the way they do in Washington D.C. Your wife pays the utility bill and tacks on a new Louis Vuitton purse. You pay your son's health insurance, and he walks away with a Playstation 5. You drop off your mortgage and treat yourself to a set of golf clubs.
When someone asks why you reply it was part of a broader package to finance your household and that if you didn't take action the household would shut down. It may sound ridiculous, but that is exactly how Congress spends our tax dollars.
We see it multiple times a year. Congressional leaders leverage an emergency or artificial deadline of their own creation to pass a massive, omnibus, take-it-or-leave-it spending bill stuffed with self-interested, unrelated items that would never make it through the legislative process alone. Remember $25 million for gender studies in Pakistan as part of December's COVID-19 relief package?
As we have stated before, the last time Congress passed a budget the right way was a quarter-century ago —that was the last time Congress had a complete appropriations process that involved legitimate debate and deliberation.
With 435 members, the U.S. House of Representatives is often known as the "people's house," while the U.S. Senate is often referred to as the "world's greatest deliberative body." How ironic given the two bodies do anything but deliberate on behalf of the people.
If rank-and-file members would band together and demand more time and power over the appropriations process, this problem could be fixed in short order. Instead, the average member of Congress has been stripped of the power they were meant to wield as our directly-elected representatives and as a result, so has the preeminent branch of government itself.
Why does it function this way? Why don't members object? The answer is simple: it is easier. It is easier to excuse a vote that is fiscally irresponsible when it was the only choice you had. It is easier to just blame the process and fall-in-line, hoping that one day - if you do exactly what you are told - you too can be part of the "leadership" actually making decisions and writing legislation. Plus, what fun is a late-night floor debate when you could instead be raising money from special interests or defending said-votes to raise small-dollar contributions on cable news!
While the current process gives elected officials cover, it comes at a tremendous cost for the American people in the form of deficit spending and debt. Take for example the recently passed $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill of which just $420 billion comprised the popular COVID relief stimulus payments. Under the guise of providing the remaining $1,400 of the $2,000 checks promised during the 2020 elections, Congress spent more money we don't have as our national debt quickly inches up to $30 trillion.
Whether or not these cash payments are good public policy is up for debate. However, everyone should agree that members of Congress should have had the opportunity to debate the issue and vote it up or down independently and on its own merits without tying it to almost two trillion dollars of spending (73% of which was unrelated to the payments).
The status quo will continue as long as seats in Congress are viewed as status symbols or stepping stones to higher office. Elected officials will continue to prioritize playing it safe to protect their future aspirations, and Americans will foot the bill. We can and should demand better.
