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The Week Ahead
Week 4 schedules: House, Senate, committee agendas. See Utah Policy Daily calendar for all the other political events.
Monday Musings
Congress Needs a Sharp Slap in the Face
Utah’s Legislature has its failings. I don’t agree with everything that happens on the Hill. But I like Utah’s Legislature a whole lot more than I like the national Congress. If our Legislature ran Utah the way Congress runs the country we would toss our lawmakers out of office headfirst. If Congress was running a corporation the way it runs the country, congressmen would be fired or thrown in jail for gross incompetence and deceit, for spending money they don’t have, for cooking the books, for laundering money among different funds, and for making promises they can’t possibly keep.
The Wall Street Journal last Friday published a fascinating and scary story (paid subscription required) about the growth of non-discretionary spending and entitlements in the federal budget. Today, some 84 cents of every federal dollar is committed before the Congress even addresses the budget. All the nasty partisan bickering is really over only 16 cents of every tax dollar.
Our presidents and members of Congress have allowed the country to become addicted to runaway deficit spending and unsustainable entitlements, and they don’t have the guts to do anything about it.
Entitlements programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Society Security, pensions, low-income benefits) “are growing far faster than inflation or the economy, some 8% a year,” said the WSJ. Medicare, at $391 billion this year, is close to equaling, by itself, the entire domestic discretionary part of the budget.
In his State of the Union Speech, President Bush said he has identified 140 programs to cut or end, saving $14 billion this year. Big deal. That amounts to a paltry $14 billion in savings, a miniscule .005% of the budget, and he probably won’t even get that because of partisan squabbling.
To deal with runaway entitlements spending, Bush proposed a bipartisan commission, effectively punting the problem to the next president. The WSJ quoted GOP Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona, an advocate of entitlements reform: “Congress is never going to be willing to deal with this, because the members are always up for re-election, every two years.”
The WSJ story goes on at length about the how unsustainable the growth in entitlements spending is, about how a fiscal “tsunami” nears as the baby boomers retire and fewer people are left in the work force. But political paralysis prevents anything from being done.
Personally, I have lost faith in Congress’ ability to deal with the nation’s real problems. Congress has to somehow be shaken up or it is going to bankrupt the country. It is in a deep rut and it can’t get itself out. It has become so poisonously partisan that what’s right for the country comes second to winning the next election and maintaining partisan control. Making the other party look bad and pandering to interest groups comes way before making tough choices that ensure a secure future for our children and grandchildren.
That’s why I find refreshing proposals like the one made by Sen. Howard Stephenson to make Utah’s U.S. senators more accountable to the state through its Legislature. Congress needs a sharp slap in the face. Congress needs a wake-up call. Congress needs to devolve to the 50 states a good share of what it tries – and fails – to do.
I recognize that Stephenson’s proposal isn’t very practical and isn’t going any where. But the states and the voters need to put pressure on Congress. Maybe term limits would do it. Perhaps we need a national campaign to simply vote out every incumbent because they refuse to address the nation’s real problems.
Blog Watch
At the Senate Site blog, Sen. Lyle Hillyard offers his impressions of the first three weeks of the legislative session... Part of the Plan also has some thoughts on this year's session... Pete Ashdown is back with a new post on the dark side of political candidacy (see also here)... Woods Cross Citizen offers some thoughts on Doug Wright... Planet Legislature has a few weekend posts... New West has a post on HB7... Charley Foster responds to this NRO piece on Canadian polygamy policies, as well as the D-News "libel" flap... Wilf Sommerkorn has a roundup of public reaction to SB170.
Washington Watch
Hatch Seat is Safe?
No surprise, but National Journal continues to list Sen. Orrin Hatch as a pretty safe bet for re-election. The latest rankings by Chuck Todd, editor-in-chief of Hotline, put Hatch at the No. 26 spot of 33 Senate races, listed in order of likelihood of the seat to switch party control. The No. 1 ranked most vulnerable seat is held by GOP Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania. The safest, at No. 33, is Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi. Of Todd’s 10 most vulnerable seats, five are held by Republicans and five by Democrats. But the top three most vulnerable are all Republicans.
Hatch: "Open Mind" On NSA Spying
Sen. Orrin Hatch "wants to keep an open mind" about Pres. Bush's terrorist surveillance activities as Senate hearings on the NSA spying program open this week (Los Angeles Times and New York Times).
National Media Watch
No Money From Abramoff
Funny satire by National Journal columnist Jonathan Rauch, noting that he’s the first journalist to disclose that he has received no money from former lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- and he’s giving it all back.
They Don’t Get It
“Grumpy old media guys” like Ted Koppel and Dan Rather are ubiquitous these days, says William Powers in his National Journal column on the news media. And they all bemoan the decline of great journalism at the national TV networks. They can’t quite grasp the fact that the era of all-powerful network TV is over, replaced by a wide array of new media.
Campaign Tales and Tips
Events Drive Politics
(With a new political year upon us, we’re going to publish a campaign tip weekly, some of them recycled from previous years.)
If you want to be successful in politics, either during a campaign or as an incumbent, plan events. Events force good things to happen. If you are a legislator or county leader, for example, but you aren’t involved in many events, then you’re missing major opportunities.
Events such as speeches, fundraising dinners, debates, hearings, panel discussions, town or neighborhood meetings, press conferences, media interviews, town celebrations, etc., all can help you make political progress.
What happens when you schedule an event? You are forced to:
- Get people involved in your campaign
- Establish policy and clarify your positions
- Prepare communications materials, focus your messages and hone your arguments
- Interact with the news media
- Develop contact information and mailing lists
- Provide meaningful work for volunteers
Those are all very positive things for a candidate or an office holder. Most political leaders develop important policy positions when they are writing speeches or preparing for media interviews. Giving a speech forces you to grapple with the important issues and to develop your policy and positions. Holding a fundraising event not only nets you some campaign cash (hopefully), but it provides a lot of good exposure and forces you to get organized and recruit volunteers and supporters.
Without events, not much happens in politics. But it’s surprising how many political leaders don’t go out of their way to proactively plan events. They attend their regular meetings and take what speeches and other opportunities are offered them, but they aren’t aggressively creating events. There are many more good event opportunities to take advantage of than most politicians realize. The old political maxim that events drive politics is absolutely true.
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