All Life Is Problem Solving

(From http://www.obamamites.com)

In some previous political blogs, I’ve talked about getting bipartisanship the wrong way around, and how and why to get rid of the filibuster. In this blog, I want to intensify my message on these issues and also direct it to Barack Obama. Today, Paul Krugman weighed in on the Senate’s compromise “stimulus” bill and his evaluation of it. He said:

“The short answer: to appease the centrists, a plan that was already too small and too focused on ineffective tax cuts has been made significantly smaller, and even more focused on tax cuts.

“According to the CBO’s estimates, we’re facing an output shortfall of almost 14% of GDP over the next two years, or around $2 trillion. Others, such as Goldman Sachs, are even more pessimistic. So the original $800 billion plan was too small, especially because a substantial share consisted of tax cuts that probably would have added little to demand. The plan should have been at least 50% larger.

“Now the centrists have shaved off $86 billion in spending — much of it among the most effective and most needed parts of the plan. In particular, aid to state governments, which are in desperate straits, is both fast — because it prevents spending cuts rather than having to start up new projects — and effective, because it would in fact be spent; plus state and local governments are cutting back on essentials, so the social value of this spending would be high. But in the name of mighty centrism, $40 billion of that aid has been cut out.

“My first cut says that the changes to the Senate bill will ensure that we have at least 600,000 fewer Americans employed over the next two years.”

In my last post, I said that retaining the Senate’s filibuster isn’t worth the job of a single laid-off American. And, it’s certainly not worth the jobs of 600,000 Americans. Nor is it worth a shortfall in GDP of $2 trillion over the next two. But worse than that, it’s not worth the cost of breaking a filibuster when Barack’s energy program comes up for passage. It’s not worth the cost of breaking the filibuster, when National Health Care comes up for a vote. It’s not worth the cost of breaking filibusters when we try finally to fix the damage wrought by Katrina. Or to fix OSHA. Or to get the SEC, the FDA, the EPA, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission working again. Or to fix all the other agencies of Government gutted by the Republicans and short-changed by the Clinton Administration. It’s not worth the cost we’ll pay when we finally move to ensure that well-to-do people again pay their fair share of taxes; or when we try, once again, to restore the American Public School system to its one-time glory, or when we try to ensure that every young American gets their shot at a good University education.

No, I don’t want to attempt to build bipartisanship and keep the Senate filibuster and pay these heavy costs. I didn’t vote for that. I voted for change. If bipartisanship is part of this change, then fine. But, bipartisanship is process, and I want results more than I want process; especially extra-constitutional process like the filibuster and bipartisanship.

I don’t think there are very many Americans who will think this is a good trade-off, either. Bipartisanship and the filibuster just ain’t worth the American Dream. Maintaining the power of Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe, and Joe Lieberman, and Ben Nelson, and Arlen Specter, and George Voinivich just ain’t worth the American Dream, or even a month’s postponement of it.

So, I say to Barack Obama: first things first. You want change? Real change? Change in Washington? Then getting the filibuster is the first change you need. After that, all the other changes will be a hundred times easier, because you’ll put together programs that can and will be successful in putting the country back to work and making it strong again. Tell Senator Reid this:

Harry we need to get that filibuster, and we need to do it, because we were elected to deliver change and we are going to be accountable if we don’t deliver “good change,” “effective change.” The Republicans aren’t going to be blamed if things don’t work. I am. You are. We are. This is our chance, and we can’t let an extra-constitutional undemocratic process stand in the way of our getting results. We’ve got to do all we can to enact our best program. Then if we fail the country, the people can try something else. But let us not fail, because we allowed an anti-democratic and extra-constitutional process enshrined by previous congresses, to stop us from taking our best shot. Let us be accountable, and then if we fail, let the Republicans be accountable for what they do. That’s what Democracy is about. Let’s, at long last, have some Democracy. Let’s give the public what they really voted for. Not bipartisanship. Not the filibuster. But a second New Deal. And this time, one that won’t stop at the water’s edge; but that will deliver the American Dream.

To Be Continued