America's Legislative Backlog

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One thing Republican control of the presidency and Congress gave us was *nothing* -- no legislative progress on things important to America. Sure sure they gave us all tax cuts, but that gave us deficits and long-term debt. Sure sure they spent a lot on defense, but it wasn't (apparently) done right and we still got 9/11, war in Afghanistan against al Qaeda and war in Iraq. The debt grew, but at least the rich were paying lower taxes and were deregulated. But, of course that gave us the mortgage/banking crisis which nearly destroyed the entire world's economy.

Since then Democrats have done health care reform, fixed the worst parts of the economy to stop and reverse the recession, re-regulate banking and a few other important things (car companies saved, higher education student loan reform, investment in alternative energy, etc.).

What's the difference? Democrats are taking care of what needs to be done instead of letting the legislative backlog grow.

Today when we look at al Qaeda we know there is a continuing threat, but we have competent people on the job containing the threat. When we look at Afghanistan and Iraq we know we're out of Iraq and will be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. When we look at a lot of the problems which existed during the Bush presidencies they've been taken care of. This doesn't mean everything is perfect. The economy is still sluggish, when you take the government spending sequester into account. What needs to be done to make the economy grow? Lots of things: tax reform, more deficit cutting, further improvement of the energy sector (more alternative energy, more competition, less gov't tax subsidizing), a reduction and eventual reversal of the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing programs, a higher wage for the American worker, support for unions and more investment in infrastructure. The last item is becoming more apparent over time. The cut spending to reduce deficits is impacting it.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/11/01/2875921/infrastructure-spending/

So, how do we cut deficits and spend more on infrastructure?

The first thing to realize is that borrowing money today is at very low (nearly zero) interest rates. That's always handy and a lot better than a personal credit card with rates over 20%. The other important thing to recognize is that keeping infrastructure investment low will damage long-term growth of the economy -- it costs to do nothing.

So, beginning an infrastructure bank with small investments may be a big step forward. Looking at budget priorities and choosing wisely is the other main technique for finding a way. In any case we can't let it continue to drop without dire consequences.