Is Harry Reid the Real Problem?

I have found the perfect job.  This job carries great prestige.  It pays well.  It offers amazing retirement benefits.  It affords an enormous staff to do you beckon call.  It allows you to be evaluated once, every six years.  And most importantly, if you don’t like a certain key aspect of your job, you simply don’t have to do it.  Who wouldn’t want a job like that? 

I am talking about the Majority Leader in the United States Senate as fulfilled by Harry Reid.

In full disclosure, during my day job, I am a process consultant.  When I encounter problems at work my first instinct is to see if there is a process problem.  The key is to drill down past the symptoms and find the root cause.  If something is not working, then the question often boils down to two alternatives: Is the process valid and are people following the process? Is the process broken and does it need to be changed?

There is no doubt our political process is not working.  The President and Congress cannot reach a consensus on virtually anything to solve the pressing issues facing our republic.  The question is: are they following the process or does the process need to be changed?  Some say the government is just too big to manage.  Others say we are just too partisan.  I say that neither of those are the root cause. 

Yes the size of the government is daunting.  It is complex and bureaucratic.  That has been the case of every government since the beginning of time.  Besides, what choice do we have?  To say it is unmanageable is to admit defeat.  The size of the government is not the root cause of our problem. It is just a symptom.

The most cited symptom is that the politicians are just too partisan.  I think this too is a red herring.  Yes, it is fair to say we are in a partisan environment.  Part of that is a good thing.  We have partisanship because the country is evenly divided on two competing political philosophies.  However, today’s partisanship pales compared to partisanship in our past.  In the past we had fist fights, duals to the death and slander that would make your skin crawl.  We have always had partisanship and the government still worked.  Partisanship is just another symptom.

I think the root cause is the Senate’s inability to pass a budget.  The budget is the lynch pin in the political process that focuses the resources of the federal government.  Without it, the bureaucracy wanders aimlessly as it has for the last three years with devastating consequences. 

Harry Reid and the Senate he leads have not passed a budget in three years!  Since taking over the House of Representatives the Republicans have passed a budget every year.  The missing step in the process is for the Senate to pass a budget and then the two houses of Congress to reconcile their differences.  This is hard work. It is called governing. It is part of the basic job description. 

Everyone knows that money equals power in Washington.  What is a budget?  A budget is the roadmap for how to spend the money (i.e. power).  Our Founding Fathers were brilliant when they devised the budgetary process. The reconciliation of the people-centric budget (the House) and state-centric budget (at our founding Senators were not elected, rather they were appointed by Governors) brought together two different perspectives on how to spend the money (power).  Once the Congress approved a budget it went to the President for his approval or rejection. All three groups had input and responsibility to get a budget passed and they did so for over two hundred years.

While some things have changed (like the election of Senators) the process still works.  The problem is Mr. Reid refuses to follow the process.  The House has passed its budget.  Now the Senate must do the same.  The key to breaking gridlock is the work involved in the reconciliation.  Without Mr. Reid’s budget there is nothing to reconcile so we have gridlock and the system fails.

President Obama complains all the time about a do nothing Congress.  The problem is he is the leader of the Democratic Party and could instruct Mr. Reid to pass a budget.  It would be hard work but it can and must be done.  After all, it is a basic requirement for his (their) jobs.  If they don’t want to do their jobs, there are plenty of others who would like to give it a try.

Published in the LaGrange Daily News (April 26, 2012)