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The Case for Gridlock
My views on gridlock were fully captured in the title of a 2015 column, which stated that divided government was “Better than the Alternative of Expanding Government.”
And I followed up with a 2020 column that showed that spending restraint was more likely when the two parties were forced to share power.
To be sure, divided government also can produce very bad results (the country suffered a big expansion in the burden of government during the Nixon years, for instance).
But J.D. Tuccille from Reason explains why Americans should feel happy about gridlock starting in 2023.
…the election results stand as an expression of overwhelming lack of confidence in the major parties, with a resulting breather for the country resulting from the split decision’s ensuing, and quite welcome, gridlock. …The Wall Street Journal‘s Brody Mullins and John D. McKinnon noted last week. “…Washington overall isn’t expected to do much for the next two years.”
That’s good news for Americans baffled by Democrats’ insistence on treating the U.S. economy as something between a laboratory experiment and a toy train set, with lawmakers indulging their whims through serial rounds of life-altering policy moves. …Republicans didn’t exactly convince the country that they were the cavalry riding to the rescue. Their main selling point seems to have been that they weren’t Democrats. …gridlock, with all of its faults and instability, is what we have, and we should be thankful for that. …gridlock can give us a bit of a national breather, and that may be the best we can hope for from a destructive political system.
Amen. I’m in favor of more breathing room for the economy’s productive sector. That’s when we get better outcomes.
But there are two reasons why gridlock is not a long-run solution.
First, Tuccille points out that we now have presidents claiming autocratic powers.
The gridlock…isn’t total. The increasingly autocratic nature of the presidency allows enormous room for the nation’s chief executive to act unilaterally. Through executive orders and memoranda, presidents enact policy changes that should go through Congress (if they’re permissible at all) in a manner befitting elective monarchs. The only real check on that power is the willingness of the courts to remind the country that, while rule-by-decree is a form of government, it’s not one permitted by the Constitution.
Second, we have very serious problems (an awful tax system, runaway entitlement spending, the administrative state, etc) that can only be solved by legislative action.
I’ll close with a depressing observation about what to expect from politics. 
Simply stated, politicians generally have incentives to maximize their short-run status, not to maximize the nation’s long-run health.
So, whether we have gridlock or not, it’s not easy to be optimistic.
Unless, of course, we can figure out ways to reincarnate the very rare Republican and very rare Democrat who did the right thing.
Until and unless that happens, I want politicians to be “unproductive.”
Open letter to President Obama (Part 584)
(Emailed to White House on 6-10-13.)
President Obama c/o The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
I know that you receive 20,000 letters a day and that you actually read 10 of them every day. I really do respect you for trying to get a pulse on what is going on out here.
The federal government debt is growing so much that it is endangering us because if things keep going like they are now we will not have any money left for the national defense because we are so far in debt as a nation. We have been spending so much on our welfare state through food stamps and other programs that I am worrying that many of our citizens are becoming more dependent on government and in many cases they are losing their incentive to work hard because of the welfare trap the government has put in place. Other nations in Europe have gone down this road and we see what mess this has gotten them in. People really are losing their faith in big government and they want more liberty back. It seems to me we have to get back to the founding principles that made our country great. We also need to realize that a big government will encourage waste and corruption. The recent scandals in our government have proved my point. In fact, the jokes you made at Ohio State about possibly auditing them are not so funny now that reality shows how the IRS was acting more like a monster out of control. Also raising taxes on the job creators is a very bad idea too. The Laffer Curve clearly demonstrates that when the tax rates are raised many individuals will move their investments to places where they will not get taxed as much.
______________________
If you blame the Sequester for blaming job growth then you don’t have a good grasp on economics.
The Overlooked Jobs Tragedy
April 9, 2013 by Dan Mitchell
When the monthly job numbers are released, most people focus on the unemployment rate.
On many occasions, I’ve cited that number, usually to point out that the unemployment rate is far higher than the Obama Administration promised it would be if the so-called stimulus was enacted.
That episode should be additional proof that Keynesian economics is misguided.
But that’s not the issue we should be worrying about now. Instead, our concern should be what appears to be a permanent reduction in the share of the working-age population that is employed.
As I explain in this interview for Blaze TV, our ability to produce is governed by the quality and quantity of labor and capital in the economy. Unfortunately, it appears that the Bush-Obama policies of bigger government have had a negative impact.
To build upon that interview, here are the very latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To be fair, the drop you see on the chart started before Obama took office. But he can be fairly blamed for the fact that there’s been no recovery.
The moral of the story is that bigger government is not a recipe for prosperity.
The burden of government spending is too high, the tax code is too punitive, red tape is hindering entrepreneurship, and various handouts are creating a dependency culture that discourages work.
Should we be surprised that the employment-population ratio is grim?
___________
Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is. I also appreciate the fine family that you have and your commitment as a father and a husband.
Sincerely,
Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733, lowcostsqueegees@yahoo.com
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By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Cato Institute, Current Events, Economist Dan Mitchell, spending out of control | Edit | Comments (0)
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