Washington DC, USA. 20 June. Winston
Churchill once famously said, “We can
always count on the Americans to do the right thing, but only after they have
exhausted all the other possibilities”. Sadly,
having just arrived in Washington I am not so sure. Dear old Johnny Yank seems
to have invented an entirely new form of non-government called ’C-Castration’, or
something such. Now, I thought we
British had a particular talent for electing the politically incompetent and wilfully impotent
but C-Castration is incompetence bigger and better than anything we have
thought up for a while. Whatever happened to government of the people, for the
people and by the people? So, for those
of you non-Yanks out there let me try and explain
C-Castration.
It seems to involve a lot of American
politicians of all persuasions who know they have to make budget cuts (because technically
the US is broke) but who do not want to be actually caught in the Act. They are like
those ‘perps’ beloved of American cop shows such as CSI who are compelled to
return to the scene of their crimes and yet deny any involvement.
The scene of the crime is
Congress, hence C-Castration, which on 1 March applied a particularly sharp
knife to a particularly sensitive part of the American body politic. Known as the Budget Castration Act funding was
automatically cut to most of the bits of government that made America
virile. However, as neither Democrats nor Republicans could agree just what parts of government are virile it was NOT decided to cut all of it. Still with me?
So, Congress created a mechanism
whereby cuts would happen but for which they would not be responsible. George Washington must be spinning in his
grave. No wonder we British had to kick
Johnny Yank out of the Empire for being silly.
Old George might now understand why in 1812 we had to burn down the White
House and the Capitol (and to be honest much of the rest of Washington but the lads
got a bit carried away – you know the British squaddy - er, sorry).
However, that is not the
funny bit. Apparently Congress having NOT
decided to cut federal spending by $85.4bn in fiscal year 2013 and will
continue to NOT decide to cut federal spending by about the same amount until
2021. However, because of the Harry
Potter politics here in Hogwarts, sorry Washington, overall federal outlays
will actually INCREASE over the same period by some $238.6bn. Cutting budgets and increasing expenditure? It is a 'cunning plan' as Baldrick would say. George ‘Blackadder’ Osborne, the British
Finance Minister, will be over here in a shot when he gets wind of this as it
is just the sort of financial alchemy he loves.
Anyway, I digress. The best bit is that the castration is to be
shared ‘equally’ between ‘defense’ (why can’t the Yanks spell) and
‘non-defense’. In other words for every
dollar that Congress has NOT decided to cut in defence it will NOT decide to
cut another dollar across the rest of government.
This also means President Barack Obama
gets to talk a lot about shared values and good ideas as he has been doing this week at British taxpayer's expense at the G-Complete Waste of Time and Money. However, because no-one
in Congress has NOT cut the federal budget he cannot actually do anything
because the amount of US taxpayer’s money ‘invested’ (good one that) in
government is actually going up. Got it?
Good, because it makes no sense to me.
In fact sequestration is no
joke precisely because Washington is bringing America - the most inspirational of political adventures into very deep disrepute. Sadly, the impact on American leadership is
becoming all too apparent. As America
untangles itself from Afghanistan and the fog of Afghan dust clears Washington
is beginning to realise the sheer scale and complexity of the challenges this
country faces – both at home and abroad.
One can argue about whether facing those challenges demands big or small
government. However, at this tipping
point in international affairs, in which the world could either go east or west Washington
has gone AWOL.
Which brings me to the real
tragedy of sequestration. Americans are
constantly and rightly complaining to me about the inability of Europeans to
think and act strategically. And yet what is happening in this town is the very
antithesis of responsible strategy or politics.
Indeed, it is little politics at its very worst.
At the end of the day the US cannot expect to
lead the rest of us abroad when its politicians abrogate leadership and
responsibility at home simply to score self-defeating, utterly narrow and
strategically pointless own goals (soccer).
Alfred Lord Tennyson once
wrote, “Though much is taken much abides, and though We are not now that
strength which in old days Moved heaven and earth; that which we are we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in
will, To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield”.
The world is changing
dangerously and rapidly and we need you America…but not like this.
Get a grip Washington! From a friend.
Get a grip Washington! From a friend.
Julian Lindley-French