How Faithful People Can Change Politics

On August 11, 2011, at a time when bipartisan members of Congress were trying to work out an agreement on the federal budget, eight Republican presidential aspirants stood on an Iowa stage and dismissed any idea of compromise. When a media panelist asked whether there was any ratio of spending cuts to tax increases the candidates would accept, former senator Rick Santorum was the first to the answer: “No. The answer is no.” The debate’s moderator, Bret Baier, then put all candidates on the spot. He posed the hypothetical of a budget agreement of ten dollars of “real spending cuts” for each dollar of tax increases and asked, “Can you raise your hand if you feel so strongly about not raising taxes, you’d walk away on a ten-to-one deal?” The Republican audience cheered as all eight candidates raised their hands. In the minds of eight would-be presidents and their partisans, the most serious issue before our country, controlling the national debt, was not a subject for negotiation. Because there is no possibility that Congress would agree to deficit reduction without at least some new taxes, the effect of walking away from a ten-to-one deal would be no agreement, and no effort to contain our growing debt.