Governing by Crisis

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter:

If Congress does not pass a bill to fund the federal government by the end of next week, our government will shut down.

This should be a remarkable statement: how can the wealthiest nation in world history be on the verge of shutting down its most basic operations? Yet in fact, America in recent decades has stood frequently on the edge of shutdown – and we sometimes have dived over the cliff.

Congressman Rush Holt

In late 1995, the government shut down twice over disputes about funding for Medicare, education, and other programs. In early 2011, Tea Party members of Congress threatened to shut down the government before relenting at the last minute. Later in that same year, during the debt ceiling standoff, extremist lawmakers threatened to refuse to pay America’s bills – which would have had the practical effect of shutting down much of the government.

These repeated crises are not coincidental or accidental. They are the direct result of a radical theory that is strangling American politics: “governing by crisis.” The notion seems to be that America is in need of immediate change – and that, because Congress is ordinarily a deliberative and sometimes dysfunctional body, it enacts major changes only slowly or irregularly. To force action, lawmakers must, in essence, hold a gun to their own heads and threaten to pull the trigger. They must invent a crisis.

The problems with this approach are many – beginning with the fact that government shutdowns cause immense pain. During a shutdown, the pay of U.S. troops could be put on hold, as would the pay of other critical public servants, including food safety inspectors, law enforcement officers, and more. Veterans’ benefits could be delayed. Seniors’ applications for Social Security likely will not be processed. Non-essential public workers would be involuntarily furloughed, damaging our economy and costing the public the benefit of their service.

Just as troubling, governing by crisis makes it nearly impossible to undertake those actions that have long-term implications, those things that are important but not easily expressed as an immediate crisis. And governing by crisis perverts the system of checks and balances that our founders so ingeniously designed centuries ago. The Founding Fathers’ premise was that change in America should have broad support. In order for a proposal to become a law, it must be agreed to by the House, the Senate, and the White House.

That kind of broad-based consensus is difficult to build. Yet in today’s complex world, it is easy enough for any one of these actors to threaten, through inaction on the budget or the debt ceiling, to bring the whole country tumbling down. By threatening such a crisis, that party can force policy changes and so usurp power that the Founders never intended for them to have. Right now, in fact, Tea Party Republicans are leveraging the threat of a shutdown to attempt to repeal the health reform law – even though that law was written, debated, passed, and enacted the usual way, and Republicans failed on Election Day to gain the electoral mandate required to repeal it.

Further, governing by crisis damages the public’s faith in our government’s ability to accomplish good things. These constant crises are building a culture of distrust that needlessly deepens divisions between our political parties and between ordinary Americans.

Reminder: Health Insurance Options Workshop on September 30th

Are you a small business owner who has questions about what health reform means for your business? Would you like to know more about tax credits that could help you provide health insurance for your employees?

If so, please join my Small Business Health Insurance Options Program (SHOP) Workshop at 9 a.m. on Monday, September 30th at the East Brunswick Public Library, 2 Jean Walling Civic Center Drive in East Brunswick. Further details and information on how to RSVP are available online.

Celebrating Constitution Day

Every year on September 17, we celebrate Constitution Day, when 39 delegates from 12 state delegations gave this nation our greatest gift – and what I call our greatest invention. This year, I had a chance to recognize the occasion with students at Middlesex County High School.

The Constitution is a remarkably durable document that has withstood the test of time and continues to serve as the foundation of our country. As we commemorate the signing of the document that guides and underpins our representative democracy, I am happy to send you a free, pocket-sized copy of the Constitution. I always carry one. To receive a copy, please request one by clicking here.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

Syria

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter:

Once again, we find ourselves on the verge of military conflict with a foreign nation.

Congressman Rush Holt

We have many reasons to feel outrage and repulsion at events underway in Syria. Many believe, and
the United Nations is now working to confirm, that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons against the Syrian people. Secretary Kerry was right to say that “the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity.”

The world must respond to these atrocities in Syria with a full understanding of the facts and with the full involvement of the international community and the United States Congress. In particular, we must reject the foolish idea that America should take military action before there is good international understanding of the facts. We remember the errors of Iraq. America should be the exemplar of good international behavior. We cannot be the unilateral enforcer of good behavior.

Together with 115 members of Congress – including 98 Republicans and 17 Democrats – I wrote President Obama this week to urge him to seek Congressional authorization prior to the use of military force in Syria. Our constitution obliges him to do so, and Congress stands ready to convene at his request to weigh the wisdom of any such military strike.

How Will Health Reform Affect Your Small Business?

Do you have questions about what health reform means for your small business? Would you like to know more about tax credits that could help you provide health insurance for your employees?

If so, please join my Small Business Health Insurance Options Program (SHOP) Workshop at 9 a.m. on Monday, September 30th at the East Brunswick Public Library, 2 Jean Walling Civic Center Drive in East Brunswick. Further details and information on how to RSVP are available online.

50 Years Later

On Wednesday, I joined tens of thousands of others at the Lincoln Memorial to recognize the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Today the march is remembered best for the speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., who gave the call for universal civil rights its most powerful and urgent expression. Another of that day’s speakers was John Lewis, then the 23-year-old chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Community and now a longtime member of Congress. In his remarks yesterday, Rep. Lewis told what happened at the end of that famous day:

“After the ceremony was over, President Kennedy [who had been leery of the march] invited us back down to the White House. He met us, standing in the door of the Oval Office, and he was beaming like a proud father. As he shook the hands of each one of us, he said, you did a good job, you did a good job. And he said to Dr. King, you had a dream.

“Fifty years later we can ride anywhere we want to ride, we can stay where we want to stay. Those signs that said ‘white’ and ‘colored’ are gone, and you won't see them anymore except in a museum, in a book, on a video.

“But there are still invisible signs buried in the hearts in humankind that form a gulf between us. Too many of us still believe our differences define us instead of the divine spark that runs through all of human creation.

“The scars and stains of racism still remain deeply embedded in American society, whether it is stop and frisk in New York or injustice in the Trayvon Martin case in Florida; the mass incarceration of millions of Americans; immigrants hiding in fear in the shadow of our society; unemployment, homelessness, poverty, hunger, or the renewed struggle for voting rights.

“So I say to each of us today, we must never, ever give up. We must never, ever give in. We must keep the faith and keep our eyes on the prize.”

John Lewis, who remains a passionate activist, non-violent to his core, is a hero to many of us still today.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress