Schram: Washington's Monument to broken government

The television networks got their news tip early -- at last they would have a Washington newsbreak truly made-for-TV. So, at sunrise Tuesday, their mobile satellite broadcast trucks clustered at the base of the towering icon that the world knows as the symbol of our nation's capital.

Never has that been so true. And as the TV cameras titled skyward we saw proof that the Washington Monument is finally symbolic in every way of the reality of our nation's capital. It's just what we've been told by the cynical pundits, pandering politicos and even the econo-wonks of Standard & Poors:

Washington is broken. And now, perhaps fittingly, its monument is too.

TV cameras tiled skyward showed us a team of daredevil engineers rappelling from the 555 foot-high pointed peak of the Washington Monument. The experts slowly worked their way down the column, detecting and analyzing previously unknown cracks and chips in the stones and mortar, caused by the recent rare earthquake.

So it was this week that television finally had visual representation for all that is broken in Washington. On CNN, for example, we saw the engineers doing their monumental version of those daredevil wing-walkers, as highly trained engineers battled the breezes and dangled down the monument. We saw video from the earthquake day, of bits of stonework raining down upon tourists at the top of the Washington Monument, which, as an anchor told us, is closed until further notice.

Then the anchor moved on to what was billed as a new story -- which we now realize is really just a new chapter in the very old Washington story: "The government may not shut down after all this weekend ..."
Yup, just the newest wrinkle in the same old Washington-is-broken story. Once again, some Republicans in Congress had played yet another game of brinksmanship threatened to just let Washington run out of money and shut down before the September 30 end of the 2011 fiscal year.

Really. This time, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which provided emergency funds to disaster victims in this year of multiple catastrophes form earthquakes to tornados, hurricanes, floods and fires was due to run out of money. Some pro-Tea Party Republicans were insisting on letting the government shut down unless budget cuts elsewhere could pay the difference. Other Republicans, however, were mindful of the political fallout of plummeting polls that followed their party's roles in congressional brinksmanship earlier this year in April and August.

So they agreed to a so-called bipartisan deal that ended the threat of this shutdown with a few days to spare -- but the deal will only last until November. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it "a win for everyone." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called it "a reasonable way to keep the government operational."

Meanwhile, you know it was neither a win nor reasonable. It is crazy and even cruel to inject political gamesmanship into the need to help victims to natural catastrophes. But you also know Republicans are right about halting our eras of massive deficits (such as those amassed during the presidencies of Reagan and both Bushes) and congressional Democrats always need to be pushed to curb spending.

Mainly, you remember how in August Republicans let their Tea Party minority push them to the brink, opposing raising the debt limit and risking default. Even when the GOP caved at the last minute, Standard & Poors still downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time.
But S&P got it wrong in August when it declared: "The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed."

No way. Even S&P now realizes Washington is predictable -- pathetically so. Washington is broken from the tip of its monument to the core of its principles. You can take this prediction to the bank: Come November, Washington will mindlessly blunder itself to the brink yet again -- playing politics with our future.