Kristof on Congress and the Budget

Nicholas Kristof gets after both parties in Congress for reckless partisanship in his New York Times column.

This isn’t government we’re watching; this is junior high. It’s unclear where the adults are, but they don’t seem to be in Washington. Beyond the malice of the threat to shut down the federal government, averted only at the last minute on Friday night, it’s painful how vapid the discourse is and how incompetent and cowardly our leaders have proved to be.

Democrats excoriated Republicans for threatening to shut down the government, but this mess is a consequence of the Democrats’ own failure to ensure a full year’s funding last year when they controlled both houses of Congress. That’s when the budget should have been passed, before the fiscal year began on Oct. 1. But the Democrats were terror-stricken at the thought of approving spending bills that Republicans would criticize. So in gross dereliction of duty, the Democrats punted.

Kristof criticizes the Republicans for posturing against abortion in a manner that would result in more abortions. Despite existing law prohibiting federal funding of abortion, the GOP seeks to deny any federal funding for Planned Parenthood and the United Nations Population Fund (which does not perform abortions). These funds would pay for family planning. Denying them would result in more unplanned pregnancies and thus more abortions.

Kirstof also critizes the Ryan budget plan which the Congressional Budget Office rules would increase the deficit because of its tax cuts while denying health coverage by slashing spending.

What does all this mean? That we’re governed by self-absorbed, reckless children. Further evidence comes from a new study showing that American senators devote 27 percent of their press releases to “partisan taunts” rather than substance. “Partisan taunting seems to play a central role in the behavior of many senators,” declared the study, by Justin Grimmer of Stanford and Gary King of Harvard.

No wonder the approval rating for Congress is 20 percent.

--Ballard Burgher