In the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic and economic downturn, we should see lawmakers set aside political divisions to tackle our most pressing issues, just as past crises have brought us together. This should be a moment for Congress and the president to step up and enact solutions to combat the pandemic further, provide relief to those who are struggling, and lay the groundwork for securing our economic future.
Instead, we’re still no closer to a new round of fiscal relief than when negotiations started on July 21 (and they should have started much earlier). Partisanship is continuing to run rampant at a time when bipartisan leadership should be a no-brainer. The fact that our leaders can’t put aside their differences during a national emergency shows just how badly we need to resolve the underlying divisions causing the breakdown in our governing institutions.
During the five months since the passage of the CARES Act, multiple key deadlines have passed that should have triggered some political progress on a new round of fiscal relief. The fiscal year for most states ended on June 30 with large budget shortfalls and requests for some amount of federal aid. Authorization for the Paycheck Protection Program to approve forgivable loans for small businesses ended in early August. Enhanced unemployment insurance payments came to a halt a month ago, leaving tens of millions of people with substantially lower benefits and no answer from Congress about what’s next. Somehow, none of these urgent issues has prompted action.
To make matters worse, government funding expires at the end of September, and the way things are going, a pandemic government shutdown can’t be ruled out with both sides so far apart on spending bills. Even a few years ago, dire circumstances like these would’ve forced some kind of bargain. Now, there is no end in sight to the gridlock.
The same failure of political leadership complicates dealing with some of our most significant long-term policy challenges. The national debt is set to reach never-before-seen levels next year, and the nation’s biggest trust funds, including Social Security and Medicare, are inching toward insolvency. But neither the Trump nor Biden campaign has offered plans for addressing the debt down the road, once the economy is strong enough.
The first check on the campaign plans will be whether they are paid for. President Trump has 50 “core priorities” that are stunningly light on details but certainly appear to make the fiscal situation worse. Vice President Biden’s tax plan includes many revenue raisers that would bring in a good chunk of what is needed to cover his large levels of new spending — but likely not enough to cover the costs fully.
Whoever is elected president will have the tricky job of providing more resources to fight the immediate crisis while laying the foundation for longer-term policies to help offset those costs and then bring the debt back down.
There are pockets of hope. A group of 60 House members — split equally by party and led by California Democratic Rep. Scott Peters and Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas — have offered a list of long-term budget reform proposals that have support on both sides of the aisle. We need to build on these efforts. But the simple truth is that good politics rarely results in good fiscal policy, and leadership involves leveling with the country about what will truly be required to get back on a sustainable fiscal path.
Maya MacGuineas (@MayaMacGuineas) is the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
