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Is a national recession likely? I have no idea. Economists don’t seem to know
for sure. Nobody really does. But it has been interesting to watch Washington,
D.C., react to the potential of a recession.
Usually I’m with those who say that Washington
is broken. For years, the Republican-led Congress abdicated its role in
shaping policy to a very powerful and formerly popular president. When the
Democrats took over, they weren’t able to find a way to force an
enormously unpopular but still powerful president to the bargaining table.
President George W. Bush continued to get his way on just about everything,
and the Democrats looked as weak and inconsequential as the congressional
Republicans did. But the ever-growing fears of a recession finally
seem to have gotten the nation’s powers that be moving in the same
direction. Bush outlined his stimulus plan and a week later both
parties in the U.S. House of Representatives, working closely with the Bush
administration, came up with a proposal. The speed shocked people like me,
who figured that the whole thing would get bogged down in petty details.
This thing’s not over yet, so it still might go awry, but it’s
been an impressive start. I told you that story so I could tell you this one.
We all know that state government has been paralyzed
for at least the last year. It took eight or nine months to work out a deal to
tamp down skyrocketing electric-utility rates that should have been done in
eight or nine weeks. Gov. Rod Blagojevich demanded near-universal
state-sponsored health-insurance coverage for the masses, but he
inexplicably refused to compromise on a politically palatable funding
source and nothing happened. The governor vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars
in projects and grants from the state budget in political retaliation
against House Democrats and Senate Republicans because they had held up his
other priorities. That resulted in more wars over just about everything
under the sun. And then the governor fiddled for months while the
Chicago region’s transit system bordered on collapse.
Not everything is Blagojevich’s fault —
there are several others to blame — but he’s the governor, and
the buck stops with him. If we are slipping into a recession, we can no longer
afford to have this sort of political gridlock and goofy showmanship. What
we need are results. One of the ways that Illinois can help protect itself
against a national economic slowdown is to pass what’s known as a
capital plan. It’s another way of saying “a program to repair
and construct roads, bridges, schools, and mass-transit
networks.”
The federal government has approved billions of
dollars for Illinois construction projects. All Illinois has to do is come
up with its financial share.
But the capital plan has been held up by the
political war between the governor and House Speaker Michael Madigan. Madigan doesn’t trust the governor to release
cash for projects in his members’ districts — with good reason.
Blagojevich simply isn’t trustworthy, and he has proved over and over
again that he will use whatever power he has to undercut Madigan. On the other hand, Madigan won’t sit down with
Blagojevich and try to find common ground. The capital plan will create hundreds of thousands of
jobs all over Illinois, either directly or indirectly. It will help cushion
the blow of an economic downturn. Heck, even if nothing bad happens it will
still be hugely beneficial to the economy and to ordinary everyday citizens
who drive on those dilapidated roads and bridges, send their kids to
crumbling schools, and ride rickety rail lines. If Washington can get its act together, surely
Springfield can. The governor needs to decide whether he wants to be a
silly can’t-do buffoon who lives to score cheap political points or a
real leader. He needs to do whatever it takes to get this done. And if he can’t lead, he ought to get out of
the way.
Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political
newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2008.
