OPINION: Trimming deficit doesn't pay for politicians

That’s the kind of thinking that led to large public protests in Greece and Italy, which were forced into hugely unpopular austerity moves by the European Union. Meanwhile, students are demanding more public spending in Chile, including free college education. Go figure.

We have Tea Party rallies and Occupy (insert name) movements because of public discontent with government. While we may not agree on how to solve a problem, Americans are united in demanding that something be done — except when something is actually done or even just proposed, we want something else to be done.

The not-so-Super Committee couldn’t find a way around that conundrum because anything that would slice the deficit substantially would have consequences. Imagine your household spending has been $70,000 annually against income of $50,000 – which is the ratio of expense to income of our government. Could you make anyone in the family happy while trimming spending by $15,000 a year?

Nobody is seriously suggesting that America balance its budget. The proposed $1.2 trillion cut would not leave us less in debt than we are now — just $1.2 trillion less in debt than we would have been otherwise. We’re not attempting to stop the runaway stagecoach, just trying to slow it down enough to keep the wheels on as we head toward the cliff (that requires us to suspend reality enough to believe that Congress will stick to any deficit agreement actually reached – but bear with me).

Congressmen get elected by talking about bringing spending under control, not by doing it. It is self-preservation that encourages no action, because once spending is cut, those affected by the reduced spending will be very unhappy constituents. Unhappy voters do not re-elect incumbents. Politically speaking, it is far more practical to blame the other side for the inability to reach a spending resolution than to defend one for which you voted. Failure, in this instance, is actually success.

Congress hopes that eventually an economic recovery will ease the pressure (although Republicans don’t want that to happen until after 2012) on deficit spending — move the cliff back a mile or two, so to speak. No one is ready to rein in that stagecoach because nobody has the stomach for the consequences. They’ll let future politicians deal with that cliff.

Mark Beardsley is the editor of The Commerce News. He lives in Commerce.