President Obama today signed an executive order that creates a deficit reduction committee, the purpose of which is to get control over the massive deficits this nation has incurred, particularly since late 2008.
The commission, comprised of 18 members, six of whom will be Republicans, named by congressional Republican leaders, plus two additional Republicans named by the President.
We elected members to congress in part to hold responsibility for the purse strings. They have the sole power of federal taxation and appropriation and have used both to devastating effect on the US economy. The President has instituted, by fiat, a usurpation of Congressional Constitutional authority.
By including people who do not serve in office to create legislation that cannot be amended, he has taken powers reserved for Congress by the Constitution for himself. Despite claims of a bipartisan approach, the fact that he reserved 25% of the Republican side for his choice, the likelyhood that anything approaching bipartisan will come of this is farcical.
No real progress will come out of this commission. It is a political ploy, designed explicitly to provide electoral cover for politicians, who would otherwise risk the loss of their federal subsidy (paycheck) if the were to recommend the termination of a federal program affecting their district or state. The same thing happened in the 80's when the base closing commissions were developed.
It is a travesty, that politicians in the federal system lack the decency to restrain spending to the point that such a remedy could even be considered. Even when we look locally, we see how our own senator accepted what some consider to be a bribe to buy his vote on a hopefully doomed health care bill that would see jobs be lost, doctors leave health care and health insurance premiums skyrocket.
If the President truly seeks to reform the deficit, he should veto spending bills. That is as likely to happen as any recommendation from his deficit commission being passed. It would leave a very bad taste in the mouths of incumbents, who are more dependent on the largess of the American People than all those they claim to "serve."
Michael Rowland
"risk the loss of their federal subsidy (paycheck) if the were to recommend the termination of a federal program affecting their district or state."
ReplyDeleteI have read this 12 times. In my blonde head it means "DO IT OR YOU ARE FIRED" That is quite the threat, and should be illegal. In any other business you would be fired or fined for doing the same, and yet your (not mine, I didn't vote for him) president does this. I would love to hear from the dems backing this, why do they support this move?