Shocked

The editors of the Washington Post are shocked, shocked to learn that politics is influencing the actions of the U. S. Congress:

“Additional fiscal support could be costly but worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery,” Mr. Powell said.

That’s correct. Unfortunately, Mr. Powell spoke as Congress has begun to divide along partisan lines about how much more to spend, when and for what purposes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has unveiled a $3 trillion measure, key provisions of which are $895 billion in cash for state, local, tribal and territorial governments and another round of direct payments to households potentially larger than the first, which cost an estimated $290 billion. The bill also includes $3.6 billion in new aid to meet a crucial non-economic need: helping as many voters as possible participate securely in the November elections.

The huge measure has no chance of passing the Republican Senate and is therefore part political statement, part opening bid in inevitable negotiations with the GOP. Republicans are balking, both because they insist on their own policy priorities, such as lawsuit protection for reopening businesses, and because they believe there’s “no rush” (President Trump’s phrase) to tee up more spending before the money already approved has had a chance to work.

Indeed, only about $1.4 trillion of Congress’s total $3.6 trillion in covid-19-related spending and tax relief had actually hit the economy as of May 8, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. (Notably, Mr. Powell has yet to activate a $600 billion business lending program backed by capital Congress gave to the Treasury Department.) It’s also true that states have received significant federal help already and that the next installment must be based on carefully assessed needs — especially given the inevitable difficulties of asking taxpayers everywhere to help states, sometimes wealthy ones, where they don’t live.

I can’t distinguish how much of the WaPo’s concern is sincere and how much crocodile tears. If you genuinely want the members of Congress to act like statesmen we’ll need to start electing statesmen to Congress. Our present system does not encourage that. We should also face reality. Congress will not reform itself.

Let’s not let this crisis go to waste. Repeal the 17th Amendment or even abolish the Senate entirely. We need a single subject amendment to the Constitution. Something along the lines of

Every law shall embrace but one subject and matter properly connected therewith, and the subject shall be briefly expressed in the title.

The list of urgently needed reforms is huge: civil service reform, abolishing seniority rules in the Congress, the House should be enlarged and there should be a limit on how many people a single Congressman may represent, lobbying reform, and so on and not a one is something the Congress would do on its own steam.

And, yes, a crisis is exactly the right time for this long overdue housekeeping to take place.