The federal government is beginning to look alarmingly dysfunctional.
This falling-apart phenomenon is most readily apparent in Congress. In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans are about to go nuclear over judges, a development that could temporarily shut the place down. Across Capitol Hill, the House is transfixed watching Republican leader Tom DeLay try to bully his way through a growing series of ethics violations.
The White House seems equally out of sync with the real problems facing the country. George W. Bush is busy barnstorming America peddling privatization as a cure for Social Security's long-term funding shortfall when, in truth, privatization would worsen the shortfall. Somebody should tell him.
There have been times when the prospect of an immobilized Congress and a president pinned down pursuing a quixotic goal would, no doubt, be reason for cheer. Keeps them from doing real harm. But this is not one of those times.
The economy, contrary to the best-of-all-possible-worlds pronouncements by Treasury Secretary John Snow, is a mess. Debt and deficits are piling up everywhere -- in the federal budget, in our commercial trade balances with the rest of world, in the massive accumulation of money borrowed from foreign lenders (China, in particular) to finance Washington's spending spree, and in the private accounts of American consumers. We owe everybody. And that can't continue.
Not to worry, Bush and the Republicans in Congress tell us. We'll grow our way out of it. But that assumes the robust growth of the last two years will continue ad infinitum. Don't bet on it. The stock market certainly doesn't.
Since the first of the year, stocks have lost 6 percent of their value; the Dow Jones drop this past Friday -- 191.24 points, or almost 2 percent -- was the biggest one-day loss in two years. With good reason. The most recent monthly job creation report fell below expectations, consumer confidence has begun to slide, and retail sales are off.
The omens aren't auspicious. The Federal Reserve, which possesses the power to kill even a booming economy with untimely interest rate increases, may be in the process of doing just that. The Fed smells inflation in the offing, especially with higher oil prices apparently here to stay, and is pushing up interest rates a quarter-point at a time, the stock market's version of death by a thousand cuts.
A reasonable start to dealing with the country's fast-emerging troubles would involve two things. First, a retreat from at least some of the Bush tax cuts starving the federal treasury and feeding the country's debt and deficit problems. Second, enactment of a coherent energy policy. Neither seems likely.
For the president and his Republican Congress, energy policy consists of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska (not a source of enough oil to remotely solve our dependence on foreign petroleum) and tax incentives for the oil industry.
A more immediate and promising solution would be a federal law requiring higher fuel efficiency ratings for cars and trucks on American highways -- the so-called CAFE standards. But that won't happen. CAFE standards are opposed by two of the biggest corporate coat-holders and contributors to Bush and the GOP -- the oil and auto industries. And where big business and big contributors lead, George W. Bush and Tom DeLay are sure to follow.
As for tax cuts, Bush and congressional Republicans don't see them as the root of the country's looming economic crisis. As they see it, deep and continuing tax cuts for the investor class and the business community are the surest way to invigorate the economy for years to come and wipe away all our debt and deficit woes. We should be so lucky.
As the storm clouds gather, our leaders are otherwise occupied. Senate GOP leader Bill Frist threatens the so-called "nuclear option" to deny Democrats recourse to the filibuster to block Bush's attempts to pack the federal courts with right-wing judges. In reply, Democrats threaten to bring all Senate activity to a halt. And next week Frist is slated to star in a televised attack on Democrats as anti-Christian. How un-Christian!
Over in the House, a partisan impasse over ethics rules changes designed to benefit DeLay has put the Ethics Committee out of action. And DeLay, in a bid to rally conservatives to save his job, has called on the House GOP majority to punish judges who stray from the conservative ideological agenda -- even though the House has no role in judicial appointments.
It must have been like that in the dying days of ancient Rome when a horse was appointed to the Senate and Nero was president ... er, emperor.
John Farmer is national political correspondent for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. He can be contacted at jfarmer@starledger.com.