'Do-Nothing' Congress could do damage or do good

It’s February, Congress recently re-convened, and the brawling has already begun. Fresh off a recess marked by angry debate over the appointment of Richard Cordray and the cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline, it seems highly unlikely that Congress can summon the will or skill to take on any major policy challenges. The realistic best hope for 2012 is that Congress will tread water, extending short term fixes to ongoing problems they can’t avoid because deadlines loom. They’ll extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance. They’ll fund the government bit by bit while continuing their perennial arguments over taxes, health care and the size of government. And they’ll reach November having avoided inflicting damage upon themselves or the country that lingers past Election Day.

In this “positive” scenario, the label “do-nothing” Congress will be fairly applied. Still, what Congress is doing while it’s “doing nothing” actually matters a great deal. There is a rhythm to Congress. Every election year it seizes – accomplishing little as each party plays defense, trying to inflict damage on the other while taking no risks itself. Then, when the votes are tallied and a president settles into the Oval Office with four years of job security and a fresh Congress, he faces great expectations for early action. The first 100 days are in fact pivotal. Voter expectations are high and legislators fresh off their campaigns are ripe with ideas.

The success of those 100 days will largely depend on lawmakers’ conduct this year. The way President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner frame crucial issues this year will determine the tenor of future debates. Resorting to name-calling, demagoguery and binding pledges can make progress impossible for years to come. There are several areas that require action this year and, if handled well, will also set the stage for a productive 2013.

First is the debt deal. The agreement as passed last summer requires an automatic $1.2 trillion in cuts to the budget. These automatic cuts – known as the sequester -- are bad national policy. The sequester was a hastily designed hammer to force lawmakers to compromise on budget cuts. When the hammer failed, the sequester became law, and political reality tells us there’s little chance of replacing those caustic cuts to defense, education, and infrastructure until the lame duck session. Agencies already will have begun their fiscal year in a state of uncertainty so congressional leaders should put aside their daggers as quickly as possible and collaborate on a politically viable sequester solution.

Then there’s tax reform. One thing upon which members of congress almost universally agree is that the wholesale expiration of the Bush tax cuts is not acceptable. Still, their expiration -- and almost $4 trillion in tax hikes -- looms like an anvil over the Capitol. While we need significant additional revenue to help address our long-term debt problem, nearly all analysts agree that a comprehensive overhaul – not an overnight rate increase on all working Americans – is the path forward.
 
Republicans’ and Democrats’ actual disagreements here are limited to a few significant points, including the appropriate rate for the wealthy, the level at which private equity managers and investors should be taxed, and tax breaks for certain industries, yet the entire tax code is held hostage for tactical reasons. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montt.) should hold a series of hearings on existing bipartisan blueprints created by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles or Alice Rivlin and Pete Domenici. While 2012 will not produce any grand bargains, it is critical that Congress identify existing areas of agreement and narrow the debate for next year.

And finally lawmakers could spend the next eight months doing the basic work they were hired to do – fund the government and do it with intention.  Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in the House and Senate Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Senate should require their respective Budget Committees to sit down together and produce a joint budget for fiscal 2013, which begins in October. Then the appropriators could take those budget numbers and pass spending bills following the election. Come 2013, the government would be spending money as Congress intended rather than simply continuing the spending patterns of previous years.

With a budget in place, Congress could then work on extending a number of widely popular tax provisions, including the research credit for businesses and the deduction for teachers who spend their own money on supplies for their students. To the casual observer, the 2012 Congress will appear to an exercise in bitter dysfunction.  Our political parties are deeply divided and the election will only magnify hostilities. The test of congressional competence must not be framed in the naïve desire that Congress just get along.  Instead, true political leadership this ‘Do Nothing” year could be marked by an ability to manage the voluble discord while quietly preparing for an active lame duck session and productive 2013.

Grumet is president of the Bipartisan Policy Center. Bell directs the Center’s Domenici-Rivlin Debt Reduction Task Force and served as staff director of the Senate Budget Committee.

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