In a profile of Harry Reid, Maine Senator Susan Collins says of the Senate majority leader, "He's very pragmatic. He's a vote counter, not a policy wonk." Indeed, Reid is known as a skilled negotiator and not much of a policy thinker. But the problem in the Senate right now seems to be that there are not enough policy wonks, or rather that senators are not expected to actually offer policy justifications for their decisions, especially the middle-of-the-road types. Recall the stimulus bill, when the infamous Nelson-Collins compromisers would argue that they were really trying to cut out the least effective portions of the bill but ultimately reduced some of the most stimulative provisions and failed to justify those decisions with any kind of economic argument.
Last week, once again the centrists started to meet, freaked out by the president's budget proposal. Evan Bayh had written an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opposing the $410 billion appropriations omnibus that is held up in Congress right now, and he had also been quoted worrying about the high-income tax increases in the budget, so I called his office to try and talk to a spokesperson about what was going on. Did he think the tax increases were unwarranted? After all, they wouldn't even affect a majority of his constituents. What spending did he think was appropriate to cut during a recession? If he's worried about the national debt -- does he think it is dangerous in the short-term? His spokesman couldn't answer the questions and suggested I talk to his boss directly, an interview that didn't happen. Ultimately, Bayh's office never answered with any kind of policy justification for the senator's concerns (I'll keep trying, of course).
No wonder Collins thought she was being nice when she called Reid a vote counter, not a policy wonk. Perhaps it is the highest compliment among the senate moderates, for whom the means is so much more important than the end. Not that I'm bashing pragmatism or even compromise; whatever else you think of the Senate moderates, they did manage to get the economic stimulus package through the Senate. But compromise almost inevitably brings along a weakening of policy effectiveness, just as being a compromiser apparently brings along an inevitable weakening of policy understanding.
-- Tim Fernholz
