Three weeks ago, I gave a preview of what the shutdown showdown over government funding would look like, sound like and, ultimately, what it would become. I am no Nostradamus. It is actually easy to predict the “hair-on-fire-hysteria” from both the left and the right that foments political fundraising, drives cable news ratings and ultimately results in the continuation of what is a dangerous status quo of spending.
Both parties seem to have made dramatic and sudden shifts in their principles. Democrats voted for a similar continuing resolution, or CR, just this past December. And for years, they have been calling for an end to the filibuster in the Senate. Now, with Republicans in the majority, they want to protect and deploy it. Republicans who had said, “No more CRs — ever,” somehow came to think it was the responsible thing to do. Such political 180s from both parties are whiplash-inducing to financial markets, main-street businesses and citizens sitting at their kitchen tables trying to make ends meet.
Urgency was the watchword for three weeks — until it wasn’t. Demands for change, promises to reform and declarations of what must be done appeared to be more urgent than ever in the history of our republic — until the crisis was avoided, the government funded, and everyone ran to Washington’s airports, highways and railroads to get home.
Was a government funding crisis averted? Sure, but now we’ve once again diverted attention from the crucial conversation America desperately needs regarding our broken budget process.
In times like these it is important to remember that there have always been times like these. With a little leadership, we might be closer than ever to success in the battle of our budget and fiscal woes. We might even be “three feet from gold.”
A colleague of mine often refers to Napoleon Hill’s classic “Think and Grow Rich,” which was published in 1937 when America was beginning to emerge from the Great Depression. Hill interviewed successful people to discover what principles they had learned and applied in their pursuit of excellence. One of those people Hill interviewed was R.U. Darby, a millionaire at the time.
Darby shared with Hill a story from his past that became a defining moment for his successful future. It was a lesson in persistence and staying the course.
As a young man, Darby’s uncle convinced him to go with him out West to work in a gold mine. The uncle had found a promising spot and secured the necessary machinery to work the mine. Their early efforts were promising, and hope of riches ran high. Then, the vein of gold ore they had been mining disappeared. The two desperately kept going, but it seemed that their luck had come and rapidly run dry. They were only digging themselves deeper and deeper into debt.
Finally, they quit — selling the drilling machinery to a nearby junkman and returning home in defeat.
The junkman wasn’t convinced that their mine had no gold and decided to pick up where the Darbys had left off. With the help of a mining engineer, he found the elusive vein of gold just three feet from where Darby and his uncle had stopped drilling! Three feet!
The lesson of giving up and giving in so close to the prize became a principle that forever changed Darby’s future. He would stay the course in his pursuits and ultimately achieve wild success.
Hill wrote, “The business depression marked the death of one age, and the birth of another. This changed world requires practical dreamers who can and will put their dreams into action. The practical dreamers have always been and always will be the pattern-makers of civilization.”
He concluded, “Never has there been a time more favorable to pioneers than the present.”
America urgently needs practical dreamers and pioneering reformers in Washington. Practical dreamers lean into the tempestuous moments in history to transform industry, government and society. The power of perseverance, even when required action and sacrifice seem futile, is what gets you through those three feet to gold.
When we’re back in session, Congress needs to turn our attention right back to deficits, our broken budgeting process and the mounting national debt.
My plan is to introduce legislation to eliminate disruptions caused by CRs. The bill would create a baseline budget that restarts each fiscal year at the prior year’s spending levels unless altered by Congress, eliminating the possibility of shutdown showdowns and providing Congress flexibility to determine the budget based on real funding needs, not arbitrary deadlines. It also would allow flexible funding duration — short-term when necessary, and multi-year when stability is required.
Without reforms like this, I fear that we will fill in the mine, pour political cement over it and forget about it until September rolls around and the crisis can begin anew — only to leave us, once again, three feet from gold.
I will keep digging and welcome others interested in breaking through three more feet to strike gold and provide victory over the most pressing challenge of our time and our grandchildren’s future.