Compromise’s foes on display
The most dysfunctional Congress in recent memory did something sadly remarkable Wednesday night - it reached a compromise. It approved a measure that reopened the federal government and averted a disastrous default on our nation's full faith and credit.
And 144 members of the House and 18 members of the Senate - all Republicans, including Rep. Randy Forbes of Chesapeake and Rep. Walter Jones of northeastern North Carolina - did something remarkably sad.
They opposed the compromise, voting instead to continue a shutdown that had already slashed an estimated $12 billion from fourth-quarter economic growth, idled 800,000 American workers and brought the necessary business of governance to a screeching, unnecessary halt.
They opposed the compromise, voting instead for the first-ever default on the nation's debt - a move that many economists warned would have triggered an economic collapse far worse than in 2008, not only in America but worldwide.
Those 162 lawmakers demonstrated they are unfit for public office that demands perspective and the ability to compromise for the greater good. Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party should begin preparations immediately to offer voters sober alternatives to such recklessness.
Forbes repeated a refrain uttered by many of his obstructionist colleagues in the House: "I was never in favor of shutting down the government, and in fact I voted three times against shutting it down."
But he and his colleagues - including, on the eve of the shutdown, Rep. Scott Rigell -did no such thing.
To measures that would have kept the government open, House Republicans attached poison pills designed solely to kill the Affordable Care Act - a law passed by Congress, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and supported by a majority of Americans.
For Forbes, Jones and others to claim their party did otherwise is, at best, disingenuous. Transparently so.
The compromise approved this week is imperfect. It finances government only through Jan. 15 and extends the borrowing authority only through Feb. 7. It sets into motion, once more, an unwieldy apparatus to negotiate an elusive long-term spending and deficit-reduction plan.
The deal, in other words, bought Congress more time. It did little to shore up faith in our nation's ability to conduct its business. It did little to shore up Americans' faith in the fragile economic recovery.
But it did edge the nation away from yet another precipice.
The challenge now is gathering enough responsible, focused lawmakers to end this cycle of governance by crisis and to produce a budget - an actual budget - that begins to bring the nation's debt under control.
None of the 162 who voted for a continued shutdown and a historic default should be part of these discussions. They've disqualified themselves.
On the Democratic side, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi should move to the back bench. In their stead, they should send moderates, people like Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, capable of seeing past the next election cycle.
And President Barack Obama - who once voted against a debt-ceiling increase as senator, albeit further from the deadline, and later disavowed that position - needs to do what he has failed miserably to do since taking office. He needs to be the uniter he told America he would be.
He needs to reach out to Republicans - and put a firm hand on ideologues within his own party - and navigate Congress toward a lasting, substantive compromise. One worthy of America.
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