America’s dumbest, wildest budget fight yet
How strange that some American politicians have persuaded themselves it is patriotic and wise to menace their own country’s credit or shut down its government. Amid such nonsense, one can forget that Washington teems with bureaucrats, non-profiteers and even members of Congress who are devoted students of public policy, brimming with zeal for sensible reform. Upon encountering such would-be do-gooders in this era of legislative hissy fits, should one be filled with relief, or pity?
Lexington found himself mulling this question as, buffeted by successive waves of each sentiment, he roamed recently among the hundreds of boffins mingling at the annual “Budget Bash” of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-profit group whose name rings more plangently with each passing year.
It was a muggy September evening at the top of a Washington office building; through the gloaming glimmered the dome of the Capitol, where the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, had just given up persuading fellow Republicans to vote for a defence-spending bill the Republicans themselves had written. With the end of the fiscal year approaching, and Republicans in the House at each other’s throats—let alone in serious talks about the budget with Democrats in the House, let alone the Senate, let alone the White House—the government was careening again towards a shutdown. Small wonder there was talk among the “budget community”, as these beleaguered believers refer to themselves, of rolling boulders up hills. “Obviously, there’s not much to celebrate,” announced one of the evening’s toastmasters.
2023-09-21 07:51:46
Article from www.economist.com
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