It’s Not Just the Weather…

2/18/21

What a mess!

I’m writing this essay as the bitter cold snap continues to devastate much of our nation. Thousands if not millions of people are suffering with no heat, no electricity, no water, and little basis for expecting imminent relief. For many, the only course of action available is simply to wait it out and hope the frigid temperatures abate and power gets restored … quickly. The circumstance we find ourselves in can’t be attributed to a freak of nature, though. We’re in this situation because we knowingly chose the “small government” path and rejected the imposition of regulations and controls that could have prevented much of the current suffering.

Wikipedia has a list of power outages that goes on and on. It’s hard to imagine that the threats that had been demonstrated by this history aren’t well known by the power industry; but by choice, effective prophylactic measures have not been instituted. Instead, we left the risk assessments and consequent decisions to the industry itself, where the conflicts of interest are self-evident. Our current situation is the direct result of governments at all levels failing to exercise responsible oversight of an infrastructure that is essential to the common good. It’s an error that cries for a correction.

[As an aside, it’s interesting to note that Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, which has been particularly hard hit in this current crisis, was Trump’s first pick as Secretary of Energy. I guess he did such a great job protecting Texas’s energy infrastructure that he was a natural choice for that cabinet post!]

This current crisis isn’t just an energy problem. Rather, it’s a bigger problem of government dysfunction. The one thing that may be unique about this current case, however, is that, save for the family of Ted Cruz who managed to escape the ravages of the frigid temperatures in Cancun, this weather front has punished everyone in its path, irrespective of income. In most other situations where government actions have been deficient or failed altogether, our poorest and most vulnerable brethren have generally borne the brunt of the consequences.

Maybe the silver lining that comes out of this catastrophe is that this time, because pain is being inflicted across the full spectrum of the economic strata, a broader level of societal empathy will take hold, allowing for a more expansive sensibility about the role of government in providing a broader offering of social safeguards. On some level, with the coming consideration of the proposed recovery package by Congress, this energy crisis couldn’t have come at a better time.

Unless and until America expands its definition of the role of the government, we’ll likely stumble from one crisis to the next. People will suffer, and people will die. Unfortunately, presently under current Senate rules, a truly bipartisan fix to our most pressing national problems is a fantasy. In the short run, the only path available is for Democrats to pass Biden’s proposed recovery package under a reconciliation resolution — probably on their own. In the longer run, however, if we are to address the myriad problems facing our country beyond the reach of the reconciliation process, the Senate filibuster rule has to be rescinded.

The filibuster has been used to prevent reasonable policy solutions from being debated and voted on by the Senate. This isn’t the way it should work. Irrespective of their source, prospective policy solutions deserve consideration, debate, and up or down votes; and the majority should rule. The filibuster rule is keeping us from that process. It’s antidemocratic, and it’s time for it to go.