When the Autopilot Is in Charge

How’s this for a strange airline? The captain runs through the aircraft and reports that the first officer is refusing to refuel. The first officer runs in behind him and affirms that the machine can stay in the air a while, if only the captain is prepared to conserve gas. However you as a passenger feel about fuel, mostly you just feel uneasy; nobody’s sitting in the cockpit anymore.

Indeed, this is how things have been running in Washington lately. The left-wing President Barack Obama and the right-wing Speaker of the House John Boehner are so at odds over the course that they’re not even trying to negotiate anymore. Obama wants more money for the state. Boehner says the citizens have already had enough “stolen” from them. There is no common ground.

On account of this, Washington has now switched on the autopilot: His name is Sequester, and he’s sinking the whole budget all by himself. The idea came about a year and a half ago, when Obama and Boehner devised the cutback robot; he should never have seriously gone into operation, especially not just to force both sides into a big budget compromise. That compromise, of course, was never reached.

Automated policies can free politicians from the dilemma of having to make decisions that, while necessary in the long run, are unpopular in the short term. Because of this, debt limits and climate goals end up being the responsibility of those who are in charge later.

The Republicans Resemble a Robot

Even Washington’s saving mechanism may be useful: It’s reducing the expenses of a government that spends too much, particularly on its exorbitant military. It’s making sure that absolutely nothing impulsive comes out of Washington. But when automatic cutbacks are even controlling day-to-day business, it demonstrates a failure of policy. Governing doesn’t just mean making random cuts, but rather setting priorities. But bipolar Washington is no longer capable of this.

The Republicans themselves have long resembled a robot that can only say “economize.” If one would like to talk with them about the fact that the state also should be taking in more money, they stop responding. In the process, they have helped cause the burden of debt, in that they have several times generously lowered taxes and increased military spending.

Then again, Obama did nothing to stop the sequestration of the budget (and policy). He could have offered to work out himself how to reach the savings target. But then he would have been taking on unreasonable demands. Because his opponents are destructive, he sees himself as relieved of the responsibility to be constructive. He seldom explains his vision for solid long-term national finances. It’s enough for him that the Republicans are less popular than he is.

It’s still not foreseeable whom the voters will end up blaming for the automated cutbacks: the cost-cutting pilot Boehner or the largely responsible captain Obama. But by and large, all the passengers on Air Washington have been feeling nauseous for a while now. They would get off — if only they could.