You can count on one hand (and maybe less) the number of public policy issues with which I agree with Barney Frank. But in an appearance on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” last week, Representative Frank made some sense.
When asked about what’s wrong with the budget process, Frank said the problem, at its core, is “indecision on the part of the voters.” He pointed out that Congress is not an autonomous instrument that operates on its own; public opinion has a lot of influence. “The public has a question it has to resolve,” according to Frank. “The public wants a certain level of government activity but it wants to provide a level of revenue that’s not enough for that activity.” The main reason we have a budget deficit is there’s “a greater public demand for services than there is a willingness to pay the taxes.” And his hope in 2012 is that we see “a resolution on the part of the public.”
We’ll see what the 2012 election brings. But there’s no doubt the public is complicit in the mess we’re in, and some of its disdain for Congress should reflect back on the polity. Consider politics on a national level since 2008. The public voted for Democratic control of the presidency, the House, and the Senate. Democrats then passed legislation many Americans didn’t like (and none of which was particularly surprising). Then, in 2010, the public — unhappy with the way things were going — registered its unhappiness, resulting in an epic mid-term win for Republicans. As a result, Republican won control of the House. And that, in turn, has led to gridlock, which was the inevitable outcome of the 2010 election. Yet, now many Americans are frustrated with gridlock and the fact that politicians can’t agree on things.
The legendary NFL football coach Bill Parcells used to say, “You are what your record says you are.” Similarly, the American people are what the government we voted for says we are. It’s the result of our hands, our voices, and our votes. No one ever said that self-government was easy or pretty.
I disagree. The American people don't get to vote on either spending or revenue. We only get to vote for a politician, who represents me on many issues, and I may disagree with that pol on many of his or her votes. Even if a voter voted for democrats in 2008 and republicans in 2010 doesn't mean that he or she wants spending to be 24% of GDP and revenues to be 14%. He or she may have voted in 2008 for change after republican's showed they are corruptable, and then voted for change in 2010 when democrats proved to be irresponsible.
I'm with jbirdmenj. Wehner here is conflating representative democracy with some notion of direct or participatory democracy and blaming the voters on the basis of the latter for what their duly elected representatives are not accomplishing. And if Barmey Frank was saying something to Wehner's effect then I would disagree with him too. But Frank wasn't saying what Wehner suggests. He was saying that the American public does not know what it's about insofar as it wants services but decries the government and the taxes and regulation and the bureaucracy that's necessary for their provision.
Of course Peter Wehner is correct. We will see if 2012 resolves the cognitive dissonance of the American people.
Frank blames indicisive voters? That's classic! When did Barney Frank ever give a fig about voters?__He refers to his own constituents as "pieces of furniture."__I've lived in his district for over twelve years and have NEVER received anything close to representation from him.__Frank is a chiseling, Marxist crook from Jersey City who learned his dirty politics from Frank Hague's people, one of the most corrupt machines in American political history. __Twelve million Americans facing foreclosure want to know when Frank and Dodd are going to be convicted.__Now Frank wants to redefine marriage so his “spouse” Ready would be protected from testifying against him.__Anything put forward by Barney Frank will only lead our country further down the path of ruin. __Stop giving Frank a platform for his arrogance and corruption!___
If we'd followed the Constitution, "democracy" ( i.e. the politicians who've bought their positions of power by discriminating between citizens with other people's money) wouldn't have made such a mess.