10.13.13: Holding Back the American People

On this Sunday, the 13th day of the shutdown, Congress is in session, which has enabled Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rob Portman (R-OH) to appear on 'Meet The Press' today, but given what we heard  they are definitely not earning their respective $174,000 a year salaries, which by the way are unaffected by the shutdown.  If any group of government employees should be furloughed but also forced to return to work and do their jobs, it's members of Congress.

By the way, he shutdown costs America $160 million per day, as reported by CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin, so there is no need to continue paying nonessential governmental personnel, as many would deem Congress.

In their joint interview, both Senators admitted that the two side talking was a breakthrough, and it seems as though neither side really understands how utterly ridiculous that sounds to the American people.  As former Defense Secretary and White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton Leo Panetta said, this is weakening America - at home and abroad.  Because of the shutdown, 56,000 kids are kicked out of the Headstart educational program, cancellations of clinical trials, cancellation of military training, 800,000 federal employees furloughed, fleets not being deployed and Medicare payments delayed; and those are just the ones mentioned on today's program.  And we have to mention the program's best anecdote of the day, provided by Judy Woodruff, that 4 out of 5 U.S. scientists who have won the Nobel Prize this year have been furloughed, only in the United States.

The Tea Party caucus in the Republican party initiated this shutdown with it's demand that Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, be defunded completely in order to have a budget agreement.   The entire Republican party altered that position a bit with a one-year delay, and then argued that the president and Senate Democrats were not compromising.  But today, Senator Portman did not cite Obamacare as the reason for the impasse, but instead shifted the argument to spending in general.  He did go on record saying that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced, and this column would be for that notion as long as they can meet this one basic criteria first: the presentation of an alternative plan, which Republicans have yet to do in any degree. Harold Ford, once again hollowly trying to play the voice of reason, said the president should negotiate on Obamacare, but there is no point to that if there is no alternative.

And if the real cause of the shutdown is, in fact, spending then why can't this discussion happen with the government open and without the threat of default on U.S. loans?  Even if you don't believe Senator Durbin when he says that a default will have a "dramatic negative impact" on the economy, according to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, that's  what the rest of the world's top economic leaders think.  Economic growth, what all parties want, isn't only based on the amount of dollars on hand, but confidence and trust as well, which is established in knowing that Congress on behalf of the American people will honor the country's financial obligations.

Ms. Lagarde, in New York for an economic world summit who called the United States' economy the 'safe haven in all circumstances,' (there's your American exceptionalism if you were wondering) explained that one thing is certain - the degree of disruption and lack of trust would affect the world economy bringing on incredible risk and uncertainty - all of which is not good.  Is the United States aiming to have its currency devalued and negated as the world reserve?  Congress doesn't seem to see or understand the world outside its own echoing hallways, never mind outside U.S. borders.  Even if you find Ms. Lagarde herself not credible, she is reiterating the sentiments of the rest of the industrialized world.

That's why sixty percent of Americans say that every member of Congress should be thrown out of office, and someone should be elected in his or her place.  As unrealistic as that notion is, Congress should take the message to heart.

As Mr. Panetta outlined, everyone in Washington knows that the shutdown is hurting ordinary Americans and has to end, the debt ceiling has to be raised, and then there has to be a negotiation on spending... However, when he said everyone he wasn't referring to the Tea Party, the group most responsible for this overall failure to govern.  Frankly, the Republican party has to figure this out - their internal fighting (50% leans Tea Party and 50% moderate) is bringing down the entire country. Chuck Todd said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Speaker Boehner can't even bring a compromise idea  to their caucuses because the Tea Party 'won't go it.'

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker said that President Obama and poor Speaker John Boehner were being driven by other parties - in the case of the president, Harry Reid and the Tea Party for Mr. Boehner, but we would disagree with that.  The fact that Speaker Boehner can put a clean budget resolution, with the sequester in place, on the table, and it will pass with Democratic and moderate Republican's support, but not Tea Party support means that the outside influence is disproportionately negative in the direction of the Republicans.

Every guest on today's program said they he or she thought there would be a deal this week on the debt ceiling, whether long or short term: the logic being that cooler heads will prevail, but you would have to question where those are exactly.  To be blunt, a short term deal just sucks. What that would mean is that we would wake up from the nightmare with the full fact that we will have it again.   Some could say that it will give time for Congress to work things out, but this Congress has killed any confidence in that prospect.

However, everyone also thought that if Congress could get past their stupidity, that the American economy is ready to take off; the American people are ready to go if Congress would just stop holding them back. This column advocates arguing, it's what keeps us all honest so when Democrats and Republicans keep arguing it's all part of the process, but not at the expense of the citizens you're there to represent.  President Obama is on record as saying that he would negotiate with Republicans on spending, but not under the threat of national debt default, and chances are that if the government reopens and the debt limit is raised, he'll concede to many Republican spending demands (outside of Obamacare), more than Democrats will be comfortable with, but that is a topic for another today.

In the meantime, Congress needs to do what they get paid to do - keep the government/ country open and paying its bills.



Roundtable: Co-anchor and managing editor of the PBS Newshour, Judy Woodruff; Washington Post Columnist Kathleen Parker; former Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN); and NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd.