On July 21, 2012, Bill Keller writes in The New York Times that Washington is so immobilized by partisan rancor that those who crave a little common sense find it hard to ward off despair, Whether you blame Republican cynicism, Democratic fecklessness or presidential disengagement, it is now a given that Washington has bexome a sludge put of dysfunction.
Exhibit A, of course, is the hapless quest for a grand budget bargain. Talk to any credible economist, wire any serious politician to a polygraph, and you will hear at least 80 percent agreement on what is to be done: investment to goose the lackluster recovery and rebuild our infrastructure, entitlement reforms and spending discipline to lower the debt, and a tax code that lets the government pay its way without stifling business, punishing the middle class or rewarding sleight of hand. The bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission assembled a grand bargain that does most of this.
Of course, in this Washington, in this election year, there is no chance of accomplishing anything constructive, right? So crisis be damned, let’s scream about Romney’s outsourcing and whether Obama hates capitalism.
But President Obama has a bold option at hand, should he choose to use it. And some of his fellow Democrats are starting to warm to the idea. It has been called the nuclear option and likened to falling off a cliff. It is widely regarded as a possible catastrophe. In fact, it may be our best hope.
In January, two fiscal time bombs planted by Congress are due to explode. On Jan. 1, all the Bush tax cuts expire, constituting a $400-billion-plus tax hike in 2013. The next day — unless Congress agrees on a major deficit-reduction plan — a fiscal discipline known as sequestration will slash about $100 billion a year from federal spending, divided between defense and nondefense.
Blanket repeal of the tax cuts and across-the-board spending reductions are both pretty bad ideas. Taken together they are a kind of grotesque, automated austerity program. Lawmakers of both parties are desperately seeking ways to evade some of the consequences. Republicans are more focused on sparing the defense budget, and Democrats are pressing to preserve the middle-class tax cuts.
Republicans will howl that this is blackmail, a priceless complaint from the party that periodically threatens to let America default on its debt.
But does Obama have it in him? This is the kind of tactic Lyndon Johnson would have employed with relish. You can imagine Bill Clinton pulling it off. President Obama, whether out of diffidence or inexperience, has not shown a comparable audacity or mastery of political leverage.
Well, here’s his chance to show us what we can expect if he’s re-elected: fruitful leadership, or another four years of gridlock.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/opinion/sunday/keller-head-for-the-cliff.html?_r=1
