This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write. I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf. The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie. And it is where you want to be on a golf course.
It’s one of the ironies in politics these days – and perhaps long before.
If a deal is scrapped together – consider the current debt ceiling deal — and no one likes all aspects of it, then dislikes are one reason a deal should be passed.
Sure, it used to be that the definition of politics was the “art of compromise.”
But it’s far less so these days as both sides – actually there often are more than two sides – argue strenuously for their point-of-view, all others to be discarded.
But, my definition of compromise goes along these lines: You are not going to like all aspects of a compromise. You get something. You give something. Thus, the end is just that – a compromise.
Such is the lot of the debt ceiling deal these days – and, as I write this, it is not yet clear whether Congress will support the deal negotiated by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The two don’t appear to like each other much, but, with their aides, they get down to business over the last few days and cut a proposed deal that, if passed, would avoid economic catastrophe.
The vote-counting game is on to see if McCarthy can rally troops among both Republicans AND Democrats to get the deal across the finish line in the House. The process should be a bit easier in the Senate and, of course, if the deal gets to the president’s desk, he will sign it.
In the Washington Post this week, columnist Jennifer Rubin called the deal another feather in Biden’s cap because, she said, he is good at deal-making.
Here is how she made her point:
“President Biden’s capacity to overperform after an onslaught of negative press and Democrat hand-wringing is second to none. He did it with the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Law, NATO solidification and expansion, and now with the debt ceiling deal. It’s hard to conceive of an outcome more favorable to Biden.
“Recall where this began: The Republican House Freedom Caucus making promises such as repealing much of the Inflation Reduction Act (including eliminating $80 billion in new funds for the Internal Revenue Service), capping non-defense spending at fiscal 2022 levels for a decade, and blocking Biden’s $400 billion proposed student debt relief.
“None of that happened.
“To sum up: Biden brushed back the litany of outrageous demands, kept his spending agenda and tax increases intact, and got his two-year debt limit increase.”
Well, some folks might not give Biden as much credit as Rubin does.
But, I, for one, am willing to grant credit, both to Biden and McCarthy. They did what political leaders do: They negotiated.
Here’s the way the New York Times put it:
“No one walked away satisfied by the agreement reached late Saturday to raise the debt ceiling: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy did not win the most destructive cuts sought by the right, and the Democrat proposals to raise revenue never seriously entered the conversation. Yet, with the risk of ruinous economic default less than a week away, Congress should pass this agreement as quickly as possible.”
Agreed.
Perspective from the 19th Hole 