COMMENTARY: Congress Faces Big Decisions

FAYETTEVILLE — Members of Congress and national political leaders face a variety of responsibilities and challenges, particularly at this point in history.

However, they are easily swept into the political vortex where dogmatic stances and partisan alliances influence their decision making. This is all too apparent in the current posturing over raising the debt ceiling.

But, instead of gravitating to polarized positions or espousing simplistic slogans, legislators have a responsibility to educate themselves, and, importantly, to help educate the public about the critical issues facing the nation, including how we got into this financial dilemma, and what steps we should take to move forward.

As Washington struggles to deal with the debt and deficit issues - which Sen. John Boozman calls the most serious threat the United States has faced since World War II - we are paying the price for the dumbing down of the political dialogue.

Politicians do not like to face fiscal realities.

And when they are forced to do so, they tend to resort to grandstanding demagoguery and to engage in what Sen. Mark Pryor correctly characterizes as the blame game.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Democrats have been accomplices in some costly decisions. But blaming our budgetary predicament primarily on the Obama administration is evidence of amnesia.

During the Clinton years, significant progress was made in improving our national financial ledger, but in the following years we witnessed tax cuts and a trillion-dollar war in Iraq, for which little budgetary provision was made. That was also the case with the prescription medicine benefit approved by Congress. These were major factors in digging the massive hole in which we find ourselves, exacerbated by financiers and financial institutions playing fast and loose with the economy.

There is no easy way out of this mess and the public ought to be educated on that point. Instead we get misleading bromides and short-sighted palliatives.

And legislators should be explaining to the citizenry what is at stake in the debate over raising thedebt limit. What might seem to be an arcane procedural matter is, in fact, a critical factor in U.S. credit worthiness and global economic stability.

The United States has been the cornerstone of the international financial system. Even during the most recent financial crisis, confidence in the United States as a safe investment remained relatively high.

Failure to raise the debt ceiling could lead to default on U.S. obligations, including payments due to other countries. The ripple effect could send the economy into a tailspin.

In other words, this is no occasion for political brinkmanship.

Nobody likes the idea of having to raise the debt limit. Yet, it had to be raised seven times during the Bush administration.

And, yes, while serving in the Senate, Barack Obama voted against increasing the debt limit, a protest vote he now realizes was a mistake. The temptation for others to similarly protest is obvious but dangerous.

We need legislators who will face up to the necessity of making hard choices on taxes and spending, and who will also take the responsibility to educate their constituents about the implications of those choices - including, for example, the plan advocated by some GOP leaders to privatize Medicare.

Holding the debt ceiling hostage to a proposed balanced budget amendment is not a wise approach and could result in a financial meltdown. A balanced budget is a worthy goal, but locking it in as an absolute requirement could tie our hands in times of emergencies and limit ability to deal with a weak economy. Likewise, those who sign an oath for “no new taxes” never ever are doing themselves and the country a disservice.

They cannot assume that a balanced budget is going to be achieved simply by decreeing it.

Remember when Prop 13, the prize achievement of an anti-tax crusade, was being touted as a panacea for California, and look at what disastrous condition that state is in now.

The current melodrama in Washington is all too real, and the consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling could be calamitous. This is no time for symbolic protests or chanting meaningless mantras.

We need serious and open-minded representatives who will educate themselves and the public about the choices we face and make informed and pragmatic decisions that will set the nation on a forward course.

HOYT PURVIS IS A JOURNALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR.