After a record shattering government shutdown, the federal government has finally reopened. Yet, the latest package is nothing more than a redux of band-aid deals from years past that enact continuing resolutions (CRs) and delay tough decisions. The latest package will extend the CR until Jan. 31, 2026, giving us less than 90 days until the next self-induced crisis.
The fact that the shutdown is being resolved during the week of Veteran’s Day is a fitting time to reflect on the dereliction of duty by Congress that stands in stark contrast to the oath that our military members also took to Support and Defend the Constitution of the United States. It is also an appalling sign of the normalization of governmental dysfunction that harms all of us.
What is the result of Congressional dysfunctionality? It is costly!
Estimates indicate that each week of a shutdown costs around $15 billion in GDP. Furthermore, calculations from the 2019 shutdown, whose record length we already exceeded, resulted in over 25,000 lost years of federal productivity. Very quickly, the nation’s overall output and tax dollar investments are going up in smoke.
If past is prologue, now that this shutdown is resolved, legislators will proudly point to calculated compromises, political posturing, and deal-making prowess while demonizing their opponents and lauding their solution – a continuing resolution. That phrase – continuing resolution – is a sad and all-too-common euphemism for something dangerous and insidious – simply failing to do their jobs.
For 15 of the last 16 years, Congress has failed to pass a budget on time. While engulfing themselves in endless squabbles over ancillary issues, they systematically overlook this core Constitutional responsibility. Each time they fail to pass a budget, they make our country less stable, less secure, and less sustainable. As the base commander of Joint Base Andrews and Edwards Air Force Base, I would be fired for such negligence. As a father and a husband, I would be shamed for such incompetence and malfeasance. Yet, these politicians enjoy the security of their incumbency, recklessly failing to uphold their oaths of office.
Simply mentioning a government shutdown sends ripples of anxiety throughout our society, and diving headlong into one is an existential threat to those who serve our nation while living paycheck-to-paycheck, especially for our military members, their families, and the communities in which they live. Additionally, a chronic series of government shutdowns and continuing resolutions cripples our ability to properly provide for our national security. It invites aggression from adversaries who thrive on our weakness. This dysfunction is harming our citizens, hurting our country, and hacking away at our credibility. Plunging into another self-induced crisis is nothing to cheer about.
The costs of such budgetary incompetence are real and significant. For the DoD budget alone, a long-term continuing resolution has been calculated to result in $48B of lost buying power. Some have described it as if Congress put the money in a trash can “poured lighter fluid on it, and burned it.” This apt analogy provides a repulsive picture to the taxpayers whose hard-earned withholdings are consumed by the flames, and should startle a nation that faces severe and growing threats.
During a continuing resolution, the military is unable to adequately start new programs to prepare for a world that is growing more dangerous. Thus, our defense strategy perpetually stagnates. Each time, a communist-controlled China surpasses us in some areas and catches up to us in others, unencumbered by a system characterized by Congressional sabotage.
As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine said the following during a budget hearing: “routinely operating under Continuing Resolutions limits audit efforts, lowers real buying power, results in less deployable capital, and makes it harder for industry to make long term investments.” Meanwhile, we lose something that is unrecoverable in global competition where the stakes are incredibly high – time. Unfortunately, politicians are squandering ours without regard to our interests and their oaths.
We need leaders to wrestle this process and our nation back to where it belongs. Leaders abide by constraints, overcome obstacles, understand requirements, respect the need for urgency and gravity, and seek opportunities for collaboration to achieve their mission. Politicians dither while money burns, squandering time and our nation’s safety and security.
United States Air Force Brig. Gen. John Teichert (ret) is a leading expert on foreign affairs and military strategy. He served as commander of Joint Base Andrews and Edwards Air Force Base, was the U.S. senior defense official to Iraq, and recently retired as the assistant deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs. A prolific author and speaker, he can be followed at johnteichert.com and on LinkedIn.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Jessica Rodriguez Rivas via Wikimedia Commons)
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