In this government shutdown the piece that disturbs me more than the debt ceiling, more than the Obamacare debate, more than the lack of a budget, is our Congress’ inability to compromise. In truth, we’ve been handed the government we deserve: people we’ve elected are there because they’ve promised not to back down, never compromise, and that they’d “never stop fighting” until they delivered exactly what we, as voters have asked them to achieve.
How are you liking the results?
Sadly, it seems our friends in Washington know the truth about the electorate: If they compromise, we’ll be the first ones to run them out of office for actually reaching across the aisle and trying to pass legislation. There’ll be pictures on MSNBC or Fox News showing them sharing a beer with that horrible person from the other side of the aisle. Two days later it’s billboard material and we kick them out of office.
Imagine trying to be “uncompromising” with your personal finances.
When paying down debt, a popular tactic is to talk to lenders and structure more favorable terms. Is it in a lender’s best interest to compromise and cut you a better deal? Maybe, if they think you’re more likely to pay. At the very least, they’ll listen without prejudice toward anything but your credit score and your request.
We compromise while shopping. You should negotiate all day to score a better deal. It turns out that if you ask a car dealer for more, for example (as illustrated in this fantastic recent series from Matt at Mom and Dad Money), you’re likely to find a favorable response. Why? They want to sell a car and you want to buy one.
At home, you have to have some give and take in your budget. My spouse wants to travel to Italy. I want to hit the Canadian Rockies. What do we do? We discuss our long term goals, our budget, and any opportunities we may have to save on the trip. Once we’ve focused on a course of action, then we search for travel deals, find side income, and begin a monthly savings plan.
If we want anything out of our government, I believe we need to rethink who we elect. Rather than the person who can scream the loudest (Ted Cruz has been using the absurd hashtag #MakeDCListen lately), maybe we should focus on electing people who can give and take. I’ll bet we won’t get everything we want, but this is Washington D.C., not Walt Disney World (although I think many of our Congress people live in Fantasyland).
I wonder if President Obama refuses to negotiate with his cell phone carrier? I can imagine that discussion now: “I’m not paying you one cent until you restructure my contract.” Yeah….that ain’t happenin’.
In Other News
– Thanks to Andrew at Living Rich Cheaply for mentioning our podcast. Check out How to Be Productive During Your Commute.
– A big thanks also to Feeling Financial for discussing our podcast in their What I’ve Been Reading post.
I have many more people to thank! I’ll mention a few more every day until I catch up….
Photo: Putin arm wrestling Wikimedia Commons
Some of the things in life we have to compromise on. We can’t always get what we exactly want otherwise everything would ground to a screeching halt. Our politicians are adults and above everyone else they should understand this. As much as we elected them on the uncompromising ground, we also elected them to be the voice of reason and to keep our interests in the fore. Am starting to wonder whether that is the case now.
That’s definitely two of us, Simon.
I have mixed feelings about all of it.
First of all, I don’t pay a lot of attention to politics because I think that it’s mostly a waste of time. I try to know what’s going on from a distance and not burden myself too much with the shenanigans.
I kept reading that Republicans were blocking Obamacare for absolutely no reason except to be difficult. My initial thought was, “WTF?”
Then I got my health insurance bill and saw that my premiums would increase about 100% under the new Affordable Care Act. And, the huge increase in premiums was for the cheapest plan, with a 10K deductible.
I know that the government shutdown isn’t all over the ACA and that it’s a combination of things…. At the same time, I do think that there are usually two sides to every story. But, in this case, there are about a million sides to the story and about 99% of them suck.
“….99% suck.” Amen!
I understand Holly’s point…while I don’t really know the intricacies of the Affordable Care Act and think that it needs improvement, I don’t think that forcing a government shutdown is the way to do it. Compromise takes time to work out a better deal. Compromising while the government is shutdown and when the debt ceiling is fast approaching is not the best time to do it. What the heck were our elected officials doing all through summer?
Andrew, it was summer! Hello! They were at the theme park or the beach. Who needs to govern with fast-approaching deadlines looming! Wait until it’s all shut down and then sweat it out…. Ha!
I think maybe at this point that people would be pleased with the officials willing to compromise. This whole thing has gotten to the point of absurdity. It’s bad when you are tired of hearing about the government being shut down. They need to grow the hell up. Compromising is a good trait – not a bad one.
I totally agree, Alexa, but during the last two elections we’ve thrown out politicians who were “middle of the road” and good negotiators for “tough” new people. It seems that when you negotiate you open yourself up to criticism (and then morons believing we need “tougher” instead of “do-ers.”
The funny/not-funny part: Statistically it looked like the Democrats held the upper hand here until a couple of days ago. Statistics showed that far more Americans believed the Republicans were to blame than Democrats. But because of their unwillingness to bend at all, stats out today show that people think they’re all turds. Advantage lost for Democrats.
“If we want anything out of our government, I believe we need to rethink who we elect.” I could not agree more Joe! This whole thing is just one massive cluster and the thing is so many don’t realize is that we’re getting what we asked for be re-electing these buffoons.
The thing is that most politicians market to us. They use data mining to find out what we want to hear and then they target that. Then, they get our votes and guess what, they weren’t genuine (crazy thought I know. 😉 ) I think a lot of times they view compromising as being weak as opposed to looking out for the best interests of the country. All I know, is that if my 6 and 4 year olds can get along then certainly can the politicians.
“If my 6 and 4 year olds can get along….” Classic!
My brother has decided that he’s not voting for any incumbent. I don’t know if that’s a solution, but that’s his stance to change Washington.
Wonderful post, Joe. Any “relationship” that is going to be successful takes compromise, period. You can’t manage your marriage, or your company, or whatever, with a “You’ll do as I say, or else!” attitude. It just doesn’t work. If only the “intelligent” people on Capitol Hill could get that through their thick heads.
Did you say intelligent and Capital Hill in the same sentence? ….and that’s what’s sad. I think they ARE intelligent people who are doing a lousy job of finding a middle ground.
LOL, they may have intelligence, but I’m not sure they have wisdom. 🙂
The reality is that what happens in our government is not what happens in normal people’s lives. We can’t do stuff like this and expect it to work. While the ACA is the holding point for this shutdown, it is a law. If you want to change it, you can’t hold the government and economy hostage to do so. Changes need to come in a separate way.
The bad news is that the “holding hostage” term was what President Obama used last year during debt ceiling negotiations and since then what progress have they made? Zippo.
It’s the same old sh*t, just a different day. I don’t care which political party is doing what. They have become practically useless as “leaders”.
I’ve read that President Obama gave too much in earlier negotiations, was roundly criticized for it, and that has led to a more contentious negotiation this time around. I’m thinking of doing a blog post on it later but I don’t know if the readers will stand for another piece (POS?) on negotiation.
I’ve also read that. I’m be interested in your take on negotiating your way out of this! Help! Let’s send you to Washington! Run for Congress, man! Done By 40 in ’14!
I think the fact that I’ve “Hiked the Appalachian Trail” precludes me from running. Weirdest euphemism ever.
I think Washington needs to think about the many lives they are affecting by this little petty scrimmage. Everyday since this all started I’ve been seeing different stories on the news about people who’s lives are changing because of this. I agree with most of the commenter here that there needs to be compromise. Life doesn’t stop for president or congressmen. There’s people out here with real issues. All this time they’re taking is ridiculous.
Thanks for the shout out Joe. The lack of compromise is one of the main reasons I’ve pretty much cut politics out of my life. It’s far too frustrating to follow and I never feel like I’m being productive listening to the perpetual bitch fest of one side vs. the other. The problem, at least as it seems to me, is that these people seem far more interested in re-election than in actually finding good policy. And we as a population reward that by, as you say, punishing any “sissy” who has the gall to listen to someone else’s opinion. Don’t we all hate the people we deal with who only see things one way and refuse to take other opinions into account? Why do we then vote those people back into office?
I would love to see a candidate who had the balls to admit that they don’t have all the answers and that they’re (gasp!) open to changing their mind on something based on the opinions of the smart people they have around them. But that person would never win an election, so we’ll never see it.
My wife just does what I say otherwise I shut down the family. 😉
you don’t have to like the law, but as an elected official, you do have to follow it. you don’t have to like your get-out-of-debt plan, but if you want out, you do have to follow it. no compromise necessary.
People should never compromise. That way everyone will get everything they want. EVERYONE will have EVERYTHING!!!
Anyone who has some common sense and an ability to cross the aisle will never get elected, I’m afraid. I think all we can do is put ourselves in the best possible financial shape and deal with whatever blows the government throws at us. If I end up having to pay $900 per month for health insurance, I will complain a lot, but suck it up and do it. I do like the ability of free enterprise and being able to say whatever I want, so I guess I can take the good with the bad. Lots of bad lately, though.
Joe,
They still get paid so there is no hurting on the congressman part. The problem like you stated earlier is that the moderates get voted out, heck they can’t even get out of the primary.