Tea Party adherents in Congress show their disdain for the public

Sunday, July 31, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have called for imposing legal limits on the amount Congress can spend and a constitutional amendment to mandate a balanced budget.

Backed by the Tea Party movement, Republicans have tried to whip up public support for the measures, which they passed out of the House this month.

The public wants the federal debt and spending reduced, but that’s not the same as what the Republicans are proposing. The GOP wants to gut government, and its “Cap, Cut and Balance” plan would do that by enshrining draconian measures in law. That would hobble the federal government for years by setting arbitrary limits and requirements that would be difficult to overcome. Congress — and the country — would be legally bound by the Republicans’ unthinking ideology, no matter what happens in the future.

The Republicans have been incredibly patronizing with their proposals. What they are essentially saying is that they need to bind Congress because the voters can’t be trusted to put good people in Congress to govern. Or, do Republicans think the public needs to be saved from itself and thus the stiff mandates that dictate how government should behave?

Instead of taking responsibility and doing the right thing, Republicans have acted like toddlers, making childish demands. When President Barack Obama said Democrats and Republicans need to “eat our peas” and make the tough decisions no one wants to make, Republicans balked and complained. They won’t make the tough decisions, nor are they open to discussing or debating ideas. They merely bring platitudes and empty promises.

For example, they talk about wanting to make government run like a business, but their proposals run counter to that approach. Businesses make investments in hope of a future payoff, and they don’t just slash operations to make a budget — they also consider raising revenue to meet expenses. But when it comes to government, such investment — which can require raising revenue — is anathema to the Republicans.

The anti-government rhetoric has cast a pall over Washington, and that threatens to undercut the nation. When it comes to improving schools, transportation or many other services, these Republicans have largely refused. Somehow they think the nation can cut its way to a brighter future.

The Tea Party movement loves to pepper its views with quotes from the Constitution and the Founding Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson, who advocated for a small government.

Jefferson used the debt as a political tool to both attack his opponents and to accomplish his goals. As the Christian Science Monitor noted last week, Jefferson told a friend the nation needed a constitutional amendment to block the government from borrowing money — his call came during the administration of rival John Adams as the nation was dealing with the debt from the Revolutionary War. Jefferson succeeded Adams and, as The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman recently pointed out, just a few years later he had no problem running up the debt to finance the Louisiana Purchase.

Today’s Republicans have it backwards. They’ve called for a constitutional amendment after their party ran up the debt with two wars and tax cuts to the rich — none of which were paid for. And they have the gall to blame President Obama? Furthermore, their proposal for a constitutional amendment undercuts the nation’s representative democracy and the Founding Fathers’ intent by taking power away from elected officials in Congress.

With careful thought and consideration, the country can find ways to make smart budget cuts while still finding ways to invest to improve the country and prepare it for the future. But to do that, the Republicans will have to release their bitter hold on a narrow, thoughtless ideology. They should trust that, in the end, the voters will do the right thing to correct Washington if it goes wrong. They did, after all, put them in power.