For My Next Trick I'll Need...

Hopefully not another debt crisis or government shutdown. For my next trick I'll actually need a functioning government, and the next trick really shouldn't be a trick at all, but a budget, you know, like the ones that Congress is supposed to produce.

In the aftermath of the government shutdown, the question on my mind - and I hope on everyone's mind - is what does our government do now that it has officially decided to do something? Given the inability of our elected officials to accomplish anything since the great tea party coup of 2010, I'd say any action would be positive action, but then again some people consider the Cruzian crusade to be action, so perhaps we need to define a bit more clearly what it is we expect from Congress.

1) A budget, please...? I know it's a lot to ask for two sides with completely contradictory economic views to find common ground, but given that the common ground is the sensible ground - we raise and lower taxes as dictated by necessity, never letting them get so high as to stifle investment but neither cutting them so drastically as to starve revenue - one would think it would be possible for the two sides to set ideology aside and be practical about the need for smart spending cuts and reasonable revenue increases in order to make America sustainable.

2) Immigration reform. This one is a no-brainer (aren't most of them?). Our country's immigration system is broken in so many ways and places that I don't know where to start. Build a fence, offer a pathway to citizenship, reform the manner in which visas are given to educated immigrants, etc, etc, and more etc. There is a Senate bill sitting in the House of Donothingness that provides a good template and would be a much better alternative than the current, broken system.

3) A renewed interest and investment in infrastructure, primarily in education. This is where our future will be won or lost, and educationally we are lagging woefully behind our economic peer group. American public education is largely in shambles. There are still things we do well, but our failure to proactively invest in education leaves us retroactively spending money far less efficiently to support people who could, should, and would be supporting themselves if we had enabled them. Not only are we wasting money, but we are failing to provide the means for our citizens to provide for themselves and thus creating a semi-permanent underclass. Only by investing in education can we sustain the kind of innovation and maintain the freedoms that are the hallmarks of the society we value.

I hope that the debacle of the shutdown was the slap in the face reality-check that the far right needed, and that we can actually have real and vigorous debate around how to address these issues which are just the ones I deem most important among the myriad of things that need to be done. Immigration is a good place to start since there is already a strong bipartisan consensus. Perhaps Congress can find a way to do something useful and pass that bill and then use it as a springboard to address the budget and education reform.

Let's go here, Washington. Do a trick for us. Show us you can perform. Craft and pass some legislation and get to work making America better.