Problems mount as Congress dithers

Some are said to show their cards or wear their heart on their sleeve.

These time-tested cliches generally apply to me, a state senator representing my hometown of Lake Stevens in the Washington State Senate.

I am a moderate — some have even jokingly called me a radical moderate — proud to serve alongside a trio of legislators with diverse political views. I am also a proud veteran responsible for legislation that recognizes the complex needs of our military servicemen and women. So too am I an equally proud father who has supported legislation to fund programs that will prepare our next generation for the growing demand in the high-tech industries here in Washington and the global market. And like many of my colleagues, I am also an avid supporter of small businesses, supporting legislation to support our state’s budding green energy sector, as well as its failing infrastructure.

But in the end, I am a swing-district Democrat who regularly crosses the aisle to forge the compromises we need for our state and future generations. For instance, I recently worked with my colleagues in the state Legislature to pass a budget that, while far from perfect, was broadly supported and staved off a government shutdown.

So as someone who is limitedly involved with federal politics through my role as a Co-Chair of the Washington Chapter of the Campaign to Fix the Debt, I am perplexed why the picture in the other Washington is so immensely different.

In June, the Senate passed a five-year, $500 billion farm bill on a bipartisan 66-27 vote — including yea votes from Washington Sens. Murray and Cantwell — only to fail in The House. More recently, the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform, only to meet the same fate.

All told, this is a reminder that while local and state leaders across the U.S. make difficult decisions, leaders in D.C. continually fail to do so.

Nowhere is this truer than in regard to addressing our national debt, which is larger, relative to the economy, than at any point since immediately following WWII.

When pushed to the brink, from the debt ceiling to the fiscal cliff, leaders on Capitol Hill implemented quick fixes despite widespread agreement such fixes will not solve our long-term fiscal problems.

Take, for example, sequestration, designed to be so arbitrary legislators would implement something else. They did not and these short-sighted cuts remain too abrupt at a time when we should be phasing in smart reforms.

But most importantly, sequestration fails to control the long-term drivers of our debt — our increasingly costly entitlement programs and our outdated, inefficient tax code.

At a minimum, we must replace sequestration.

I commend Senator Murray for repeatedly trying to form a budget committee conference designed to work out budget differences among chambers and parties. Perhaps more importantly, I also fully support the proposed tax reform plan by Sens. Baucus (D-Mont.) and Hatch (R-Utah), which advocates for a “Blank Slate” approach — one that cuts out specific tax preferences from the code and makes lawmakers justify putting them back in. We need comprehensive and pro-growth tax reform, and the senators’ plan would certainly help in that regard.

But the reality is that the most pressing fiscal challenges remain unaccomplished: strengthening our entitlement programs and generating enough savings to put the debt on a downward path.

If we do nothing, economic growth will sputter and interest, inflation, and unemployment rates will all rise and our national debt will be larger than the economy in twenty years, and twice its size within fifty.

D.C. seems pleased that near-term deficit projections have improved; however, without a “grand bargain” our long-term fiscal outlook remains bleak. Even with the progress made so far, the debt will rise as a share of the economy by the end of the decade, and not let up thereafter.

Rather than lurching from crisis to crisis, our leaders need to deal with our fiscal challenges in a comprehensive and bipartisan way. Implementing a deficit-reduction plan now, instead of waiting until the deficit begins to grow again, will allow us to deal with these long-term challenges through smart reforms.

Perhaps folks in Washington, D.C., can visit Washington State for some direction.

Sen. Steve Hobbs is a member of the Washington Chapter of the Campaign to Fix the Debt, a bipartisan effort to educate Members of Congress, thought leaders, and citizens across the country about the need to address the nation’s fiscal challenges.

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