Both parties, though especially Republicans, are targeting the
relatively few lawmakers who’ve endorsed the deficit-reduction plan
drawn up by former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and one-time Bill
Clinton aide Erskine Bowles, regarded by many budget experts as a model
of reform and that dirty word — compromise.
It is very disconcerting how current political campaigns are more about targeting the opponent than making a case for one's own platform. Every day I receive political fliers in the mail, and 90% of the time they picture the endorsers' opponent with bold text all over saying what they are doing or have done wrong. Hopefully this says more about the flawed campaigning system than about what voters will react to.
ReplyDeleteThere must be something wrong with our political system if representatives who favor a middle ground route are singled out and attacked. This only creates an even wider divide in our biparty sytem, which makes it easier for politicians to campaign and harder to actually solve important problems like tax reform. Campaigns that attack politicians in order to highlight others should be limited in some way, or else no one will have an incentive to compromise.
Won't it be a matter of time until some kind of compromise is reached? I think those Republicans that have been alienated by the "extremists" in their party will be willing to deal with embattled Democrats who see their influence in Congress waning. As we discovered in class today, there must both be spending cuts and revenue generation to fix the budget deficit. At this point, neither party is willing to concede this truth.
ReplyDeleteIt will take more trials like Simpson-Bowles to make this apparent. I wonder if balancing the budget will be a big topic in the upcoming presidential elections? Are we still in a period where we are concerned about spending? Because much of President Obama's discourse in the 2012 campaign dealt with spending sustainably. I think it is a politically sound stance for Democrats to appear as if they don't support unbridled spending (as their opponents claim.) Similarly, I think Republicans that concede that tax cuts aren't the answer to our deficit would also probably be successful in the polls.
The quote from former Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette was a nice conclusion to the article. Ultimately, no one side has the perfect formula for success and that compromise is so difficult. Even worse, that the word "compromise" is synonymous with "controversial" in this context. Overall, I believe that there are some really good points to the Simpson-Bowles plan, like raising the Social Security retirement age, that could help reduce the national deficit. It's just unfortunate that several people won't consider the plan because it requires some sort of trade-off for both parties.
ReplyDeleteThis article is the perfect explanation why things could never be done in Congress. Our Democrats and Republicans are too busy protecting themselves and fighting for their own fame and vanity that they forget their nation.
ReplyDelete