My Way or the Highway. How's That Working Out For Ya?

By the time you read this, the deadline for congress to reach its budget agreement will have passed. It seems to be a great big national level game of blink. With both sides digging in their heels threatening to load their toys and leave the sandbox. Plenty of political posturing, chest pounding and I’d venture to say some yelling and screaming too. Everybody seems to be taking the “my way or the Highway stance” unfortunately nobody has all the marbles in this game. And I can tell you from ten years in the state legislature neither side will get what they want. And as always we Americans love a good bloody fight. Few of us will admit it but our dark side loves a slug fest. Just think about how many people tune in to watch UFC fights and how many of us grew up believing that championship wrestling was real. Professional rodeo has almost taken a back seat to bull riding because it’s almost as if rodeo itself was too tame. It’s as if we as a society thrive on blood sport. Unfortunately politics seems to be following the national trend. And of course the media sells lots of airtime and newspapers handicapping this fight and in this new millennium the bloggers are in heaven. Obama and his crew want to raise the debt limit and tax us some more, the republicans want to force a balanced budget amendment and somewhere in the midst of all of that there is probably going to have to be a compromise. The lack of a compromise will cause a government shut down and of course both sides are threatening that they will force a shutdown if they don’t get what they want. In the meantime, the public is about to blow up and I think that if congress continues to play the “how big an ol’ boy are ya” game, nobody will win. The threat of government shut down has everyone fearful.

A friend of mine asked a question the other day about the mechanics of a balanced budget amendment and what that would entail. Quite honestly I had to do a little studying because I’ve never been through that, but I did find the answer to his question. Should a balanced budget amendment pass in Washington it would be the first step to changing the US Constitution. Assuming that it passed in Washington in both chambers and received the Presidents signature, my understanding is that the next stop would be each state legislature in all fifty states. The legislature could then vote with a super majority and pass the measure or the other option would be the legislature could put the amendment on the state ballots and let the people vote and then it would have to pass a majority of the states to actually become a constitutional change and if my information is correct that ballot question would have to appear in the same year as a Presidential election. I think it would pass in Oklahoma because we operate our state that way now. We can’t spend money that we don’t have and I think most Americans would vote for that. I think it makes fiscal sense, I’m not sure with the current national debt we could ever get to a position of a balanced budget but I think people would be for it and I know it would be an easy “yes” vote for me if we saw that measure in Oklahoma but at the same time that could be a two edged sword. In bad economic years the federal money could dry up much like it does here in our state and that always creates a great deal of waling and gnashing of teeth. I guess in regular people terms it sounds real good if you say it real fast but the getttin’ it done part would be probably the toughest test our country has ever seen. It would be like walking into a daycare center and gathering up all the bottles. The cries would be deafening. I think for the long term financial health of our country it would probably be good but as I said I don’t think it would be without casualties. One of which could be the military. So to put the congressional tussle in perspective, what we are witnessing is the push and pull that has to occur to keep our country from going too far right or left. I think it’s a normal and natural process but it can also provide balance and can serve to keep us out of the ditch on either side, keep us traveling down the road. It’s important to remember that one of the things that make us the greatest country in the world is that not all of us think exactly alike. Thank goodness!

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call
1-800-522-8502 or send an e-mail to donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

“You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note.”-Doug Floyd