TWO SOLUTIONS

The Democrats under Joe Biden want a major Covid relief bill, but Republicans are not willing to go that far. They have proposed a much more modest bill.

It looks like the Dems are going to try to go it alone, through a process call budget reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority to pass.

This appears to me to be a major mistake on their part.

In the past, with Obama's economic stimulus project, and later on the Affordable Care Act, Democrats wasted a great deal of time trying to get bi-partisan support for legislation. The process required many serious compromises, and in the end the Republicans still wouldn't vote for those bills in significant numbers.

Democratic leadership in the Senate, especially, has made it clear that mistake won't be made again.

But there's an obvious solution: Do what can be done with Republican support. Do it fast, because it needs to be done fast. Get Covid relief passed, even at a lower level than hoped for. Just get it done!

Then pick up the pieces that fell on the cutting-room floor and create a new bill that Republicans have said they won't go for. And pass that bill using budget reconciliation.

Why cut Republicans out of the parts they're willing to do? Is it that the Dems don't want to give them credit for anything if they're not willing to go all the way?

If Republicans are allowed to be involved in Covid relief, they might be willing to cooperate in other areas, like immigration reform and infrastructure repair.

I can imagine a situation where a bill has two main parts, one part wanted by one side, the other wanted by the other side. As long as the opposite sections are not a deadly poison to either side, both can be passed in a bi-partisan manner.

Why not? This is the way most things get through congress.

(I mean, back when stuff could be done at all.)

Now, it may be the Republicans (especially) don't want to do anything that might tend to make the other side look good. After all, that man in the White House stole the election—and everybody knows it, according to Donald Trump.

But that's a recipe for stalemate. And the country suffers.

The basic problem, of course, is that governing the country has become an extremely partisan enterprise. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

One major solution: term limits. One term and go home. No re-elections, ever.

Remember, for congress critters, re-election is Job One. And it makes sense. Whatever they hope to accomplish in congress, nothing can be done if they are not in congress to do it.

You gotta get in that room and stay there.

The unfortunate side effect of this is general gridlock. In a zero-sum world, you can't just win—the other guy must also lose. And if you have to spend every waking moment to make that happen, so be it.

In a world where congress is a viable career path, everybody suffers.

Republicans are currently controlled by a single toxic personality. This control would be greatly reduced if people weren't worried about losing their jobs.

With term limits, there is no career path in congress, and nobody can quash your re-election hopes—because nobody has re-election hopes.

Another solution: ban political parties.

Government can be divisive. Political parties are designed to be divisive.

Since when is tearing the country apart a good thing?

Political parties exist largely so lazy humans can make one decision in their lives and forever after vote the party line. That might be a good thing if the result was not the destruction of the entire country.

Are human beings stupid enough to do something like this?

I think by now you know my answer.