There better not be a round two.
The manufactured political crisis that partially shut down the federal government and brought the country to the brink of economic default has been resolved only temporarily, with a deal that finances the government through Jan. 15 and lifts the debt ceiling through Feb. 7.
President Barack Obama, having finally realized that years of compromising had won him little, did not give in this time, and it was up to the House Republicans to capitulate, which they did, cowed by sinking poll numbers and the realization — also late — that they would be largely blamed by the American people for the unfolding debacle. Whether the tea party hard-liners in the U.S. House got the message, though, is doubtful, and Obama’s plea for a new spirit of bipartisan cooperation in the wake of the crisis is likely to fall on deaf ears in Washington.
But this plea — echoed by mainstream Republicans — has not fallen on deaf ears in the rest of the United States. Citizens across the country must engage their elected representatives — now — to ensure that the coming debates about a long-term budget and other contentious issues serve the public, rather than fuel the kind of political dysfunction that we witnessed the past two weeks.
After the deal was reached, Obama rightfully signaled that any serious effort to hammer out a long-term budget must confront the fiscal sustainability of entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Like the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, those expensive and essential programs are lightning rods for the kind of deeply held political positions that resist rational collaboration. But compromise our elected leaders must, or risk repeating the futile spectacle that shook confidence in the United States around the world.
Although the theatrics in D.C. may have at times veered into the absurd, the ill effects of the shutdown were real, and rippled throughout the country, just as the U.S. was rebounding from a crippling recession. The federal workers forced to take 16 days off will eventually receive back pay, but will they spend those paychecks as freely as they might have a month ago? What about the lost business and incomes of those who suffered the trickle-down effects? Those are unsettling questions as the U.S. economy, based as it is on consumer confidence, lurches through what is traditionally the highest-spending quarter of the year.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that the shutdown represents the ultimate missed opportunity for the GOP, and especially for its subset of tea party hard-liners. It was those minority House members who railed most vociferously against Obamacare and forced the shutdown in a bid to defund the federal law mandating health-care coverage for virtually all Americans.
Obamacare rolled out Oct. 1 as scheduled, and the debut was rocky. But those problems were overshadowed by the shutdown sideshow, and now the glitches are being fixed. Critics missed a prime time to state their case about the law, and their underlying smaller-government philosophy.
The shutdown left the country and the world with the spectacle of a small minority of elected officials holding a pillar of the global economy hostage. Democracy in action, some say. Not again, we say. Citizens, here and in every state across the land, must speak up now to avoid a repeat in January. Our elected officials must recognize that this is no way to run a country, unless they are trying to run it into the ground.
