Until the Next US Crisis

With a governmental agreement, the United States has once again superficially dealt with, in extremis, the budget crisis that was threatening to lead to its bankruptcy. The struggle, with undertones of sham, staged in Congress these past weeks threatens to recur at the beginning of the year, since each time the fiscal agenda agreed on by the Democrats and Republicans at the last minute has a rather limited time period: The federal government can access its funds until Jan. 15, and the debt ceiling has been extended to Feb. 7. The other compromise between the two parties—having two months to make a budget outline for the next decade—looks like a bad joke in light of what has occurred in Washington.

One would think that this breath of air at the last second, allowing the most important country in the world to continue meeting its economic obligations, represents a victory for President Obama and his party. This is not the case. If his crisis management has appeared pathetic to the Republicans, shown by his steep fall in ratings, the Democrats, the winners in the struggle, have not learned anything. They have neither conceded anything relevant nor gained anything significant. Congress’s agreement skims the problems at the superpower’s foundation.

Congress’ vote on Wednesday night shows a Republican party at guerrilla war, but absolutely defiant in the movement of one of its factions toward fundamentalism; almost 40 percent of its senators and around two-thirds of its representatives voted against the compromise. This represents a formation that, under the tea party’s growing spell, threatens to break the rules every time it dislikes a governmental initiative, and whose rising star, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, is beginning to portray himself as the favorite among the rural population for the next presidential nomination.

The tea party’s invasion of the American constitutional machinery has been decisive in the extreme political polarization that is paralyzing the legislative process and effectively leading the country to a more than precarious governability. The budget crisis is only a manifestation of a state of affairs that threatens to make Obama’s second term worthless, in the domestic sphere as well as the international one. Consider Iran or immigration reform.

If nobody wins, America loses. The condition of the only superpower, largely responsible for the stability of the world’s economy, is incompatible with this succession of destructive episodes, the result of political antagonism that defies common sense. The declining credibility of the U.S. is more clearly seen from international borders, but its own voters also confirm it when they say they want a breath of fresh air in the next Congress. Obama summarized it yesterday, saying that his fellow citizens “are fed up with Washington.”*

* Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified. However, the White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/10/17/remarks-president-reopening-government) indicates that Obama did say, “are completely fed up with Washington.”