The Price of Hyper-Partisanship

Submitted by John Thornburgh on July 27, 2012
Tags: 
Hyper-Partisanship
GAO
Fiscal Cliff

Since No Labels launched in late 2010, we’ve been talking about how gridlock and hyper partisanship exact a huge cost on our country.  And now we can put a price tag on it.

This week, the Government Accountability Office reported that last summer’s debt ceiling debacle in Congress cost taxpayers $1.3 billion.

This is how bad it's gotten in Washington: congressional negotiations to reduce the national debt…actually led to the creation of more debt.

While Congress was posturing and arguing last summer, Treasury Department employees had to spend over 5,000 hours moving money around in federal accounts to ensure that our nation didn't default.  This mad money dash also resulted in lost interest payments and delayed investments – and it all adds up to $1.3 billion that we and our children will have to pay off someday.

As damaging as this debacle was, it’s nothing compared to what will happen if Congress does not find a way to avoid the “fiscal cliff” scheduled for the end of this year.  If congressional Democrats and Republicans can't find a way to work together, taxes will go up for every American, and billions of dollars in critical spending for things like defense, education and infrastructure will be sucked out of our economy.  We’d likely fall right back into a recession.

It’s a reminder of why No Labels work is so important.  We all have to mobilize in these coming months to ensure our government stops fighting, and starts fixing.