ANALYSIS/OPINION:
It has been several weeks since lawmakers took this country to the precipice of financial ruin, seemingly reveled in their fleeting power to do so, and then gingerly backed us all away. I can’t help but think they actually enjoyed the ride. Lord knows we watched every minute unfold in excruciating detail. And at every turn, lawmakers were not laboring in sweats, up at all hours of the night. No, they golfed with one another, sauntered over to the West Wing and sat around while press pools took pictures.
In classic congressional gamesmanship, they kicked the can down the road. Sure, tough decisions were made, but not the toughest. Not the ones that would set us on a path out of default. They agreed to come back in a few months and finish the hard work.
As lawmakers howled, Wall Street piled on and investors fled. Congress won all right; it just ran this country deeper into a ditch.
That’s the wrong way to win, America. Even worse, the way the debt limit deal was struck promises only more acrimony and bitter partisanship in the weeks and months to come.
Great crises historically have produced times of political detente in Washington. The Social Security crisis of the early 1980s. The deep recessions and subsequent Kemp-Roth reforms of 1981. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Those are but three examples of when both parties came together to enact some difficult but landmark policies. In the wake of those tough fights where both sides gave a little, there was an era of comity. Oh, it didn’t last for long, but it was there. It was a time when legislators were reminded of why they came to Washington in the first place. They reflected on their great stations in history and how the threads of their own stories would weave into the fabric and future of this nation.
Fast forward to 2011. None of that is occurring. The president signs the debt bill with little fanfare, passing over an opportunity to reassure markets and the American people. On a Friday just days after a monumental crisis is averted, both parties once again fire artillery rounds at the other over an anemic jobs report. Republicans say this president doesn’t know how to stimulate the economy. Democrats blame the fringe wing of Republicans for blocking stimulative policies.
It’s as if neither side has a clue just how close we as a nation came to falling flat on its face, and they seem even less interested in returning to the important work that must begin in earnest to keep the United States solvent.
It’s fair to say we are no longer interested in who is to blame, and we gave up long ago on who should get the credit. For a town fixated on process, Republicans and Democrats both missed the largest lesson of all to be learned from their brinkmanship in early August - they could leverage this “win” into a new era. Both parties have been brought to this moment in American history for different reasons, but they are here nonetheless. Now they face a common enemy. In our nation’s finest hours, we have come together to battle common enemies and win.
Yet as clear as the enemies of default and spending are, neither side seems willing to embrace this seminal moment and do the right thing. Even those who would be president are on the sidelines, stirring the dirt with their toes and hoping they are not asked to weigh in on such presidential-worthy tests.
The debt-ceiling crisis of 2011 could go down in the annals of history as one of America’s finest hours. It could be remembered as the last decade when the people said it was all right to spend more than we could afford. But if that does occur and history is made, I fear it will be in spite of the current members of Congress and not because of them.
• Armstrong Williams is on Sirius Power 128, 7-8 p.m. and 4-5 a.m., Mondays through Fridays. Become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/arightside, and follow him on Twitter at @Arightside. Read his content on RightSideWire.com.
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