Government

A Proposal To Put Politicians At Risk

An idea for how we can force politicians to compromise.

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It doesn’t seem fair:  Politicians screw around with some issue, and the public pays the price.

If things were fair, when politicians screwed around with some issue, then politicians would pay the price.

So let’s do it!

Let’s think about how you could cause politicians to pay the price for their failures.  (Think of politicians as the “least cost avoiders” that you learned about in law school.  The people who can most easily avoid political failures are politicians; politicians should therefore pay the price for their errors.)

Here’s an example:  Members of Congress now like to engage in brinksmanship with the full faith and credit of the United States government.  If one political party won’t do what the other political party wants, then the first political party won’t approve new spending, and the United States will default on its debt.  This would be a disaster, of course, for which the United States would pay a price (in higher interest payments) for decades or centuries.  Politicians play games, but the public suffers for their gamesmanship.

So let’s make politicians pay the price for failure.  Let’s pass a Constitutional amendment that says, basically: If the United States ever defaults on its debt, then any person serving in Congress at the time of default will never again be permitted to run for Congress.

That’ll show ’em.  You can play around with the full faith and credit of the United States government, but if you cause the government to default on its obligations, then you’re out of office forever.  You did, after all, fail abysmally in your job; we decline to let you keep that job.  That puts the blame where it properly should lie.

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I realize that scholars might have to tinker with my amendment.  If members of Congress knew that they’d be punished for being in office “at the time of default,” then they’d probably all resign from office one minute before the time at which default would occur.  So you might have to think about that a little.

We might also need a more precise definition of what “defaulting” on a “debt” means.  But a roomful of economists could probably design some definition that would work.

Once you decide to put the blame for political failures on politicians, then life gets easy.  If Americans generally believe that politicians spend money now (to get reelected) without worrying about our ability to repay debts in the future (when the politician will be out of office or dead), then put some restraints on spending today — with politicians, not the public, paying the price for failure.  If politicians meet the goal, then they’re permitted to run for reelection.  If the politicians fail, then throw ’em out of office permanently.

Of course, viewed through this lens, you realize how hopeless it is.  Passing laws requires legislative support.  Democrats hate Republicans, and Republicans hate Democrats, but neither breed will vote against politicians — that’s the protected class.  Only when we manage to put the risk of failure on both parties, by punishing both parties for their inability to legislate for the common good, can we hope that politicians will be forced to compromise.

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Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

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