Day 1112 – The Last Temptation of Congress

The so-called “Super Committee” seems to be like the Democratic Super Delegates, an excessively powerful sub-group that does even less good than the whole. In this case, it has admitted defeat, which means Republican and Democratic mainstays take hits in the budget. I wouldn’t call it defeat, since the “cuts” won’t kick in for years and allocations can be increased in subsequent budgets along the way.

In a short time, the deadline will pass for the proposed budget to be posted publicly for 72 hours, making it impossible to vote on the bill by the date set forth in the original agreement over the summer. The sticking points are the same as always. Democrats want to increase taxes to put off making cuts. Republicans want to put off tax increases by cutting the items which grow the fastest, social programs. In this particular game of chicken, they’re jumping out of the car as it goes over the cliff.

Here’s something I thought about tonight. What if the cuts aren’t the problem, but the public review? Many other pieces of garbage regulation either had no public viewing period or avoided it by some legalistic measure. Imagine if they passed this revised spending plan by throwing in a bunch of pork projects and insider trading opportunities like they usually do. If people found these things in the bill and let them be known, Congressmen could not plead ignorance after the fact. Instead, they decided to let the previous decision stand. What if the public review period could actually keep Congress honest, or at least less obviously corrupt?

It might be the first good use of the Internet since Al Gore invented it.

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