We need a tide of moderates

Currently the United States is operating without a budget as no formal resolution was adopted for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2010. This untenable situation requires numerous continuing resolutions to fund government operations. We have recurring budget battles, rather than secure expenditures. 

Any government agency would claim it is next to impossible to conduct business this way and we need to adopt a formal budget. The question is why President Obama and Congress have not done so and the answer is complicated for a couple of reasons.

First, the United States is operating under a $14 trillion debt and a $1.5 trillion deficit, which means we are spending quite a bit more than we are bringing in. There is only one solution to this problem: cut spending and raise revenues. The former seems relatively easy, but the problem is what do you cut? 

Every agency is spending money on people who need it so wherever you cut, someone will be hurt. An example is the entitlement that our nation’s elderly have: Medicare. We believe that older people are entitled to a social safety net so we pay for their health care. Given the huge debt and deficit, this is one obvious place to cut, but the federal government does not want to hurt the elderly so it leaves this large program alone. 

Another agency that spends quite a bit of money is the Department of Defense. An obvious way to slash spending here is we could consolidate bases or we could stop fighting wars. Bases help local economies, however, so affected Congress members protect them at all costs and no one has had the audacity to suggest ending the war against terrorism because our national security is at risk. Thus, we do not cut the funding for this other large program.

A further conundrum is that many Americans receive social services from the federal government and do not realize they do; according to a recent piece by Suzanne Mettler in Perspectives on Politics, 25 percent of Americans receiving food stamps claimed they had not “used a government social program.” Americans can easily make claims about desiring to cut services without realizing that those cuts affect them.

The latter half of the solution is to raise revenue, which entails raising taxes. The United States is a very taxpayer friendly nation with an average tax rate at 27%. We rank in the bottom six for taxes, meaning our citizens pay less than most, and we like it that way. In fact, it seems that raising taxes has gone off the table; no politician is even discussing this, including President Obama who had promised to do so. Given the recent Tea Party success in politics, begun with rallies about how high taxes are, it is unlikely we will discuss this option reasonably in the near future.

Perhaps the more important solution to the budget crisis is that our nation’s elected officials need to be able to talk to each other. We elected 536 people to represent us and they are serving in institutions that are more polarized than they have been in decades. This means that Republicans in Congress are more conservative and Democrats are more liberal resulting in an impasse. Currently, the Tea Party caucus is making it very difficult for Republicans to negotiate; they are pushing for government shutdown rather than compromise. 

Again, President Obama has dropped the issue of repealing tax cuts on the wealthiest as well as corporations and the oil industry, so there will be no increase in revenue. Since the Republicans are also unwilling to cut services to the agencies that support their constituencies, the Democrats in Congress have no reason to negotiate. They will dig in their heels to protect their interests and we will continue in this loop of continuing resolution and increasing debt.

For the institutions to be successful in resolving our budget crisis, we need a tide of moderates elected to office. Ideological elections result in our middle of the road negotiators being swept out leaving no room for discussion, much less compromise. Indeed, for our institutions to continue to be successful in governing in all areas of policy, we need more moderates.

Leah A. Murray, Ph.D. is the Associate Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Weber State University.