Burn, Don’t Freeze – Sleater Kinney
Ugh. So the new big thing on the Democratic block is…wait for it…a spending freeze. That’s just swell.
Setting aside all the good arguments about ceding the framing of this stuff to the right (which I think are valid, but occasionally overstated), there’s the basic problem that this is PRECISELY the sort of gooey ‘we should do something but we can’t really say exactly what’ sort of approach that has generated so much trouble with the other big legislative items.
There is a strong case to be made for the hands-off approach on health care. The lesson from Clinton was definitely to avoid micro-managing the process. Many would say Obama went too far in this direction, but that’s not really the issue here. The important thing with health care was getting health care. There were lots of debates at the margins but there was some pretty core agreements on the central stuff.
This spending freeze though, is NOT good policy in all of its possible permutations. If spending cuts means agricultural subsidies, then great. It sends a signal about long-term fiscal discipline and eliminates some pretty wasteful spending. However, that’s not what Obama is proposing. Instead, he’s just asking for a target but leaving it to Congress to sort out the details.
What exactly about Congress makes us think they’ll make sound policy decisions when choosing what to cut? Not only are the individual members not known for covering themselves in wonkish glory, the institutional structure (which has been a pretty common concern lately, for those of you who have been living on a filibusterless moon for the past few years) is basically designed to ensure decisions get made according to the whims of the rich and powerful.
When you combine all that with the fact that Obama has ALREADY taken off the table cuts to defense, homeland security, and entitlements…well, you’ve got a recipe for stupid, stupid policy. As Nate Silver points out, there’s every chance that it will poll well in the short term, but the fact that it a) makes no damn sense and b) is probably going to end up so broken and battered by the legislative process (remember the thing that convinced everyone they hated health care reform?) that it will be a long term drag.
All of which drives me ever closer to completely abandoning my “Obama is smart and is doing a good job with a bad situation” arguments. This is terrible idea in terms of policy, and it really isn’t very good politics either. It’s a panicky, ridiculous faux-move designed to appeal to the .000001% of the population who resides on editorial boards of newspapers, and it makes no sense. It’s also seriously depressing. Not least because there’s a strong implication that they’re working on this pile of poop rather than putting up a fight on health care.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see how much effort Obama puts into making the case for health care in the state of the union tonight.