Hypocratlicans, thank you for putting the rest of us first

It is heartening to know that when an issue of great importance needs to be addressed, our representatives in Washington are capable of springing into action and solving the problem. We saw proof of this when the House and Senate came together in the 11th hour to solve one of the biggest problems facing our nation — flight delays in most airports.

And they did this, coincidentally, just in time to take yet another recess. Whew! That was close.

In celebration of this newfound bipartisanship, I think we should do something special. We should bring them all together under the umbrella of a single political party. I know, you’re thinking that a single-party system didn’t work out too well for countries like Iraq and the former Soviet Union, but this time will be different. This time it won’t be driven by something as mundane as ideology. This time it will be driven by something more substantial. It will be driven by self-interest. We will call this new party Hypocratlican.

The whole thing started when the Republicans and Democrats couldn’t come to an agreement on a national budget. Republicans wanted to cut spending on everything except defense. Things like schools, bridges and unemployment benefits would just have to take one for the team. Democrats, on the other hand, wanted to raise taxes on everyone except the bottom 95 percent.

Looming over all this was a brilliant little innovation concocted by the president and agreed to by both parties. It’s called the Tax Payer Relief Act of 2011, or sequestration, and is an across-the-board cut to federal programs that amounts to about $85.4 billion per year. The idea was that this huge cut would, with a few exceptions, be applied to defense and nondefense items equally if a budget agreement could not be reached.

The sacred cows of both parties would be butchered if Republicans and Democrats couldn’t reach a compromise. Not ones to be tormented by reason, our Congress decided to not decide and sequestration became a reality on March 1.

It didn’t take long for the results of sequestration to start being felt and federal programs started making the inevitable cuts. The defense department is taking a $41 billion hit. Seventy thousand fewer children will attend Head Start. Teacher layoffs are projected at 78 percent of the nation’s schools in the fall. Medicare cancer patients will loose their funding. The Department of Justice will have $100 million fewer for drug task force training. Meals on Wheels will serve 19 million fewer meals. Infrastructure projects like roads and bridges are off the table. But the thing that really got the attention of our august representatives was the draconian cuts to the air traffic control systems and the resulting flight delays. That was one crumbling bridge too far.

Enter the Hypocratlicans. The furlough of air traffic controllers was scheduled to begin on April 26. Delays of up to half an hour were to be expected in most major airports, but on that day the House passed a bill ending the furlough of air traffic controllers. It was a bill run through the Senate the day before as a voice vote. That means they just voted as a single body yea or nay, and no single senator is on record as having voted for it. The House, on the other hand, did a roll call vote with 361 voting yea and 41 voting nay.

This would end those oppressive half-hour delays. As an added bonus, the vote came just in time for Congress to take a much-needed recess. It had been several weeks since their last one and they were exhausted from all the legislating they hadn’t been doing. Well, that’s not quite accurate. They had managed to get this piece of legislation through in a blistering two-day pace. Nothing on a budget. Nothing on gun control. But, by god, those half-hour delays will not stand!

To really appreciate this, I think we need to look at it from a Washington, D.C., point of view. The sequester was supposed to be shared pain. It was supposed to be something endured by all of us to help bring the debt to heel. It would be a national character-building exercise.

Well, it seems that while we were all busy building our character, the congressmen and senators of this great land decided they like their character just the way it is. Since our lawmakers were now going to feel some of the effects of this national bloodletting, something had to be done — and quickly.

That 30 minutes sitting in the airport bar could become very expensive for the taxpayers. There’s the extra drink or two and the obligatory tip. After all, we can’t let servers think our representatives are cheapskates. And then there’s the big expense — the price of a congresspersons’ time. I don’t know what the going rate for a congressman or senator is, but if you call Exxon or City Bank, I’m sure they have the figures.

All in all, that half hour could result in millions of wasted tax dollars. The House and Senate acted swiftly and decisively, and now money can be taken form other areas in the Department of Transportation’s budget to keep air traffic controllers on the job. Think of that the next time you’re crossing a bridge.

Jay Carney, spokesman for the president, has said Obama will sign this gem into law. Now when people tell me our government is dysfunctional and that our greatest days are behind us, I only have to point to this. Thank you, Hypocratlicans, for coming together and putting the rest of us first.

Chuck Legge is a freelance political cartoonist and community columnist who lives in Sutton.