Barron’s editorial page editor probes Washington’s ‘devilish political games’

Thomas Donlan devotes his latest editorial commentary in Barron’s to setting out the links among several high-profile political struggles in the nation’s capital.

The desperate political tricks of this season concern three subjects: appropriations for the fiscal year that begins on Tuesday, expansion of the legal limit on issuance of federal debt, and the opening of Obamacare for people without health insurance to comply with its mandate and sign up with the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

The three subjects are closely intertwined. Without appropriations, agencies of the government can’t operate unless the president declares them essential and everything nonessential will be shut down. Without the power to issue debt, a government that needs to borrow more than $400 billion of fresh money may lose its credit. And some Republicans in Congress so despise and fear Obamacare that they are willing — and a few are eager — to harness the government’s need for appropriations and a higher debt ceiling to the task of killing the program.

Consider first the possibility of a government shutdown. There’s something to be said in favor of it. If everything essential, such as military operations, air-traffic control, Social Security payments, and health care for about half of the country’s citizens, can operate while employing more than two million people, why do we need the nonessential rest of the government and its 800,000 jobs at all?

Some things, such as procurement of weapons and distribution of scientific research grants, are nonessential in the short term and yet very essential in the long run. And other things, such as national parks and agricultural subsidies, are not essential functions of government, but are vital to the survival of public officials. Angry tourists, angry farmers, angry government workers and angry beneficiaries of federal operations are political forces to be handled with care, if not respected.

That’s why so many people in Washington spoke of the devil and heard the sound of his wings as the Oct. 1 deadline for appropriations approached.