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October 2008
Every American should be breathing a sigh of relief that Congress finally passed the Treasury’s $700B rescue plan. But let’s not kid ourselves?this is no time to declare victory. Congress finally managed to find a way to put country ahead of partisan considerations, but most Members did so kicking and screaming—and only after the House’s first effort to pass a bill led to staggering market losses.
If Congress is able to carry out its most important responsibilities only when there’s a gun to its head, then we’ve got bigger problems than the banking meltdown. A far greater problem for America’s families is the extreme division and partisanship that has come to dominate not just our election cycles but also just about every single day between them.
I’m convinced that extreme partisanship, which of course is only going to get worse between now and November 4, is not just something we can afford to simply accept as an inevitable part of the process. It is horrible for America. And it will be particularly devastating for the children and families that VPP’s investment partners serve and the millions like them across our nation.
As if these families were not being hit hard enough by record home foreclosures, massive layoffs, falling wages, and surging food and gas prices, what’s in store is going to be worse. And I’m not talking about reverberations from the meltdown in the markets. The reality is that our federal budget was heading for disaster even before Wall Street’s crisis became apparent.
Both the Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office project that mandatory spending—the wonky term for big-ticket items like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest on the national debt—are on course to exhaust all federal revenue within a generation. In the surprisingly stark words of a GAO forecast released this summer, “absent significant changes on the spending or revenue sides of the budget or both,” the government will be able to do “nothing more than pay interest on its debt and mail checks to retirees and some of their health providers.”
Think about what this looming crisis will mean for children and families in the National Capital Region and the rest of the nation. If we don’t alter our fiscal course now, we will take away the very essence of the American promise—that all children, regardless of how they did in the birth lottery, have the opportunity to rise as far as their passions and talents will take them.
The federal government will not have a dime for helping improve public schools, for early childhood education, or college scholarships. Not a dime for Food Stamps, for nutritional support for women and infant children, or for protecting children from abuse. Not a dime for helping working families secure stable housing and reliable health coverage.
After 14 years of full-time work in the social sector and eight years working with VPP, I am convinced that nothing else we do for children and families will matter if we don’t address this budget crisis—and that extreme partisanship is the greatest impediment to solutions. Without thoughtful discussion and debate, America’s entire social sector and the families they serve will be left gasping for air. If ever there were a time for mavericks of both parties to come forward and set aside narrow political interests for the national interest, the time is now.
I’m going to put my money where my mouth is. This ugly political season has convinced my wife and me to apply a new test before we offer any more support to political candidates with our personal funds. From this moment on, a key litmus test for our supporting any candidate will be this: Does the candidate have a demonstrated track record of working with decision-makers of the other party and steering clear of the vitriolic politics that is tearing away the soul of our nation? Simply put, will the candidate put the needs of our nation first, ahead of self and party?
Money talks in politics (frankly, far more loudly than it should). Our money is going to speak the language of bipartisan problem-solving. If you make campaign contributions—whether it’s $5 or far more—I encourage you to reward candidates and public servants when they put our nation ahead of party. And come down hard when they do not.
Even more important, do the same when you go to the voting booth. Vote for those who level with us about our budget realities and will reach across the aisle to find solutions.
True leaders lead by example. Just imagine what would happen if, on January 20, our new president were to announce in his inaugural address that he and his competitor had joined forces to help find the common ground necessary to confront our budget crisis and implored their respective constituencies to do the same.
There’s no exact precedent for taking such a daring step, but bitter rivals almost always find ways of quickly putting aside grievances after bruising primary battles. The historian Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote a 944-page book about the brilliance of Abraham Lincoln’s decision to bury the hatchet with his three main primary opponents after their fight for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination. And remember that two recent presidents who once disdained each other, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, have successfully joined forces to help victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the Asian tsunami.
If Senators Obama and McCain were to team up even in a modest way on day one, imagine the tone that would set. Whether the call came in the form of soaring rhetoric or unadorned straight talk, imagine how much easier it would be for us all to summon our better angels and sacrifice for the common good.
- Mario Morino
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