Page 28 - The Economist Asia January 2018

The Economist January 27th 2018
28 United States
2 the Diversity Visa programme, which pro- an ad that snarled, “Democrats who stand Reconciliation, meanwhile, is not used
vides green cards for immigrants from in our way will be complicit in every mur- to enforce fiscal discipline. Instead, it is pri-
places that send few people to America. A der committed by illegal immigrants.” The marily a ploy for getting legislation
spokesman for Mr Trump said the presi- ad conflates DREAMers—who by law can- through the Senate with just 51 votes, rath-
dent would still not sign it. not have committed a felony—with crimi- er than the more usual 60. Many signifi-
House Republicans favour a bill that nals, just as the robocalls conflated people cant laws from recent decades, from Bill
would give some DACA recipients legal who willingly entered America illegally Clinton’s welfare reform to President Do-
statusbutnotcitizenship. Itwould also end and those who came in theirparents’ arms. nald Trump’s tax cuts, relied on the proce-
the Diversity Visa, bar immigrants from Despite the rancour, the contours of a dure. Lawmakersreverse-engineerthe pro-
sponsoring family members other than solutions are visible, if just faintly. Mr cess, estimating the cost ofwhat they want
spouses and young children of American Trump will release a “legislative frame- to pass in advance, and then issuing the
citizens (doing otherwise, Republicans ar- work” on January 29th, based on four necessary instructions. For example, at the
gue, would let DACA recipients reward “agreed-upon pillars”: a DACA fix, border start of 2017, Congress passed a budget res-
their parents, who decided to enter Ameri- security, and an ending to both the Diver- olution the sole purpose of which was to
ca illegally) and enact a host of other re- sityVisa and to “extended-familychain mi- facilitate the attempted repeal of Obama-
strictions that could cut legal immigration gration.” The first three should be just care via reconciliation.
by up to 38%. That bill would never pass aboutacceptable to mostmembersofboth The third strange thing about the sys-
the Senate. parties. The last is trickier. Democrats have tem is lawmakers’ tendency to try, unsuc-
The gap between the two parties illus- expressed some willingness to end family cessfully, to tie their own hands. For in-
trates how toxic America’s immigration migration for DACA recipients, but not for stance, in recent years, budget-making has
debate has become. During the shutdown, everyone. Last weekend’s brief shutdown been particularly painful because of the
MrTrump’spermanentcampaign released may presage a longerone, next month. 7 “Budget Control Act” of 2011, which man-
dated deep and indiscriminate cuts to
spending should lawmakers fail to reform
The federal budget entitlements. They did fail. The result has
Budgeting, busted been a biennial struggle to lift the law’s
spendingcapstemporarily, ashappened in
2013 and 2015. Under a separate law from
2010, designed to deter unfunded legisla-
tion, Mr Trump’s tax cuts might have trig-
gered automaticoffsettingcutsto Medicare
and other programmes. Congress found a
WASHINGTON, DC way to avoid that in December.
America’s budgetprocess swallows time butachieves too little
The last and worst aspect of the system
RITING a budget should be about is too measly, Congress can instruct com- is the leverage it gives minority interests. It
W imposing order. In America, it fre- mittees to write so-called “reconciliation” only takes 41or more votes in the Senate to
quently causes chaos. By letting funding bills to redress the imbalance. block a budget bill, as Democrats demon-
for the federal government lapse on Janu- In reality, Congress has not passed sep- strated last week. The budget process has
ary 20th, Congress demonstrated, again, arate appropriationsbillssince 1996. Doing become a conduit for whatever dispute
how hard it is for it to approve spending. so takes too many controversial votes. In- lawmakers are determined to have, says
The disruption might be worth it if Ameri- stead, it tends to pass mammoth bills Molly Reynolds, of the Brookings Institu-
ca’s budget showdowns led to better poli- which fund everything. Often, it cannot tion, a think-tank. In mid-2015 John
cy. But they do not. Budget-making does even manage that. So it resorts to “continu- Boehner, then Speakerofthe House, had to
not bring income and outlays into line. It ing resolutions”, like that enacted on Janu- pull a budgetbill from consideration after a
does not allow lawmakers much opportu- ary 22nd, which simply keep spending late-night amendment to ban the Confed-
nity to weigh competing claims on re- flowing at its current level while lawmak- erate flagfrom federal cemeteries.
sources. And it fails to make long-term ers try to workout a deal (see timeline). Be- Proposals for reform abound. Some
planningeasier. It is time fora shake-up. cause continuing resolutions mostly pre- want Congress to move to two-year bud-
The constitution gives Congress the serve the status quo, their prevalence gets. Others want continuing resolutions
power of the purse. Four things are odd makes it difficult for government depart- to applyautomatically, makingshutdowns
about the way it uses it. First, annual bud- ments to rejig their operations (which usu- impossible. But many suggested reforms
gets cover only the roughly one-third of ally have specified funding streams). This would require lawmakers to limit their
federal spending that Congress has decid- lack of flexibility is particularly bother- own bargaining power. For politicians,
ed needs reapproval each year. Most enti- some forthe Pentagon. that is the budget that really matters. 7
tlement programmes, such as Medicare,
health care for the elderly, are automatical-
ly funded. So while budget-making pro- Regular disorder Government shutdown BCA caps lifted for Government shutdown
vides opportunities for grandstanding by United States (16 days) a further two years (three days)
BCA caps activated,
Congressmen about long-term fiscal pro- Budget negotiations spending automatically cut First concurrent BCA caps lifted for
a further two years
blems, the process affords few chances to Two-month suspension of BCA spending cuts budget resolution Donald Trump
since 2009
tackle the principal cause: swelling entitle- Budget Control Act (BCA) passed becomes president
ment spending. 2010 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
The second oddity is that the process Debt ceiling hit/beginning
rarely follows the script, written in the of “extraordinary measures”
mid-1970s. Congress is meant to pass 12 Debt-ceiling amendments
separate bills funding each area of govern- “Omnibus” spending deals
ment, like housing, defence and agricul- Short-term budget deals
ture. Each is penned by the appropriate
committee. Ifspending gets out ofhand, or Source: The Economist