A Long Hot Summer

28 Work Days

13 Appropriation’s bills

One Emergency Supplemental

The Largest Reorganization of the Federal Government in fifty years

Medicare Prescription Drugs

Trade Promotion Authority

Terrorism Re-Insurance

Debt Limit

Patient Bill of Rights

Energy Legislation

Bankruptcy Reform

On a personal level, you have to feel some sympathy for members of Congress. The next six weeks are going to be a legislative nightmare as Congress rushes to finish the list of “must-pass” legislation before the August recess. They can expect non-stop negotiations between the House, which is narrowly in control of the Republicans, and the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by the Democrats. Both chambers will hold votes well past midnight. During the day, members will scramble to raise campaign funds, since this is, after all, an election year. As bad as it will be for members, it will be ten times worse for congressional staff. They will work longer hours and have to deal with their bosses bad moods and short tempers.

In reality, however, this is really going to be a long, hot, summer for the taxpayer. Time and again, history has shown that short deadlines and election-year pressures always lead to “compromises” that grow the size and scope of government.

Take, for example, the emergency supplemental appropriations legislation, which has funds to replenish weapons and keep the troops in the field and rebuild New York. The president said he would only accept $28 billion – no more. The Republican controlled House basically complied with his request, but their $28 billion contained the House appropriators’ “priorities” (pork), not the president’s. The Senate passed a roughly $32 billion version of the bill, which does not include many of the House appropriators’ priorities (pork), but a whole bunch more of their own. The next step is for the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate to work out a “compromise” before the August recess.

A disinterested commentator might observe that to “move the process forward” the House and Senate should compromise at $30 billion. Great, the taxpayer just got bilked for $2 billion. But the commentator missed the actual dynamic at work. The House bill has several billion dollars of pork that is not likely to be in the Senate bill. The House bill left out several billion of items requested by the administration, and of course, the Senate tacked on a whole new set of pork barrel spending projects not included in the House version. So, if you add up all of the spending in each of the three versions of the bill, it far exceeds the Senate’s $32 billion.

The disinterested commentator might then suggest that the purpose of this bill is to provide emergency funds to keep the war on terrorism going, so things like “local television loan guarantees” and highway projects and international AIDS funding, and so forth really don’t belong in this legislation. So, in the spirit of “moving the process forward,” all sides should remove the pork and focus on the real terrorism emergency funds. Right, good luck! The local pork is the emergency for the representatives and senators up for re-election.

So where does this leave the taxpayer? Sometime right before the August recess the House, Senate, and White House will agree to a “you get your spending if I get mine” compromise. The total cost of the legislation will exceed the Senate’s $32 billion, although through various accounting gimmicks the taxpayer will be told the legislation will “only” cost between $30 and $32 billion.

Now, go through that process 13 more times for each appropriation bill that must get passed. Republican appropriators begin this process angry at the administration because the White House wants to see some fiscal restraint. Over the last four years we have seen the largest expansion of domestic spending since the Great Society – and the Republican appropriators think they’re getting short changed! And the Democrat appropriators are screaming about how the Republican appropriators are starving women and children.

Get ready for the bidding war over which party can be more generous to senior citizens with Medicare prescription drugs. The bidding starts at $350 billion (House Republicans) and goes up to almost $800 billion (House Democrats). And further consider how many representatives and senators will need convincing (in the form of new local pork for their district or state) to give up their own power to help move the Homeland Security legislation forward.

Pretty soon, you start to lose sympathy for the long days and nights ahead for members of Congress and their staffs. Instead, I wish they’d plan a nice easy summer with lots of overseas junkets, and a mutual agreement to leave us, the taxpayers, alone.