When you hear election debates between political candidates, you hear a lot about what needs to be done to correct problems allegedly caused by the other guy. However, promises made to get elected, are not always promises that are kept.
Political procrastination refers to doing what is politically expedient leading to delaying timely preventative or corrective actions. The process includes sidestepping hard decisions by foot dragging and shifting the blame. I'll look at what's going on in the US.
Not all footdragging is procrastination. For decades the price of gasoline has periodically soared. I can't believe that politicians are so short-sighted that they couldn't put a coherent energy policy together in the US to make the country self-sufficient.
The current fiscal crisis is an example of political procrastination combined with other complex factors, such as power and greed. It's instructive to look at this process. Let's take a peak.
On August 5, 2011, Standard and Poor's downgraded the credit worthiness of the US. Congress' "live for today and let someone else sweat tomorrow" views were shortsighted and the consequences of these practices could no longer be covered. You can call years of Congressional procrastination on doing their financial duties, kicking the can down the road. Let's call it what it is: a combination of procrastination, business as usual politics, poor judgment, and old fashioned greed.
Pundits comment, "It doesn't matter how the economy got messed up. We have to fix the problem." However, it does matter how we got here to avoid a reoccurrence. Based on this historical analysis, it does matter that corrective actions are taken to eliminate causes.
George Santayana, a 19th century US poet and philosopher, said it well: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." By understanding how procrastination slows economic progress, the public might insist on Congress acting fiscally responsible without further needless delays. However, Congress seems sharply divided into ideological camps. Sadly, people who let ideologies dictate their thinking are likely to do more harm than good.
Political Procrastination
In today's political atmosphere, speeches create the appearance of serving the public interest. Words don't fix problems. Deeds do. Unfortunately, speech-making is often a defense and diversion. Diversions that detract from priorities are a classic sign of procrastination.
It's easier to give a speech in an empty room before CSPAN cameras than to read a 2000 or so page bill. It's easier to follow party leadership's direction and vote without reading the proposed legislation. (How often are Congressional representatives manipulated by this tactic into voting on what they don't yet understand?)
By diverting attention from critical fiscal and social issues, career politicians often can successfully stall.
How can you tell when political procrastination is going on? You can tell political procrastination by its results. For decades, politicians spent finite Social Security funds with a devil may care attitude. As they drew from the fund, the National debt kept rising. The money Congress borrowed from the fund may never be repaid. Taxpayers who paid into the system may not see a return for their investment. Medicade and medicade will soon be on the chopping block. People who paid into the program might wonder what happened to the money.
Look for the real priority behind much of the needless spending. You are likely to find bills passed for projects to help politicians get reelected, to satisfy political benefactors, to satisfy ideologically-driven needs, and other.These agendas doubtlessly contributed to a credit crisis that has been building over decades. Therefore, it is understandable that the publics' approval of Congress is at a historic low.
Intrigue Procrastination
Procrastination often occurs in combined form, such as political procrastination and decision making procrastination: you delay a decision hoping a problem will go away.
Intrigue procrastination can co-occur with political procrastination. In a political context, you needlessly delay until the 11th hour. A crisis triggers expedient actions. You now have a cover. You can say you had no choice but to act quickly. If you are a career member of congress, you know you could have acted sooner--much sooner.
On October 3, 2008 the 110th Congress passed The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (with TARP). Just prior to that, both US Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke panicked Congress and the nation by saying that the financial world was on the verge of collapse. The 11th hour was here. Something had to be done immediately.
Paulson and Bernanke told the legislators to vote for the legislation or face an unspeakable financial collapse that would be worse than the great depression. Congress fell into line. Most members procrastinated on reviewing the basis for the legislation and its implications.
This Chicken Little sky is falling alarmism is the result of putting off hard decisions that could earlier have averted a crisis. However, many in Congress had their heads in the sand, or did not care about the inevitable consequences, or had other agendas.
Did Bernanke and Paulson see this crisis coming in advance and then sit on their hands hoping that a tilting economic ship would right itself? Both men knew or should have known of this pending crisis well before the intrigue they created.
Now comes The American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 (The Stimulus Package). Officials asserted that the package needed to be immediately passed to stimulate the economy. This would keep unemployment below 8%. In lock-step fashion, most Congressional representatives voted to pass the legislation. The unemployment rate now hovers at about 9%. If you include people who are under-employed, or who have given up looking, the rate is around 18%. If this was a crisis in the making, why wait until the 11th hour?
The 2011 Super Committee was charged with coming up with a way to save 1.2 trillion dollars over the next decade--about what congress annually overspends. This might better be called a Super- Flop Committee. Partisan, political, squabbling fogged and delayed the process. Once again, there is a crisis noted. Once again, the can gets kicked down the road.
If each political party's current agenda is to position itself for the next election, neither group is delaying. If the priority is to act to improve the economy, members of both political parties are procrastinating.
Political procrastination is not new. There is an Aesop's fable of an orator, Demades, who spoke before the Athens Greece Assembly 2500 years ago. He told a fable about fellow travelers: Dementer, a swallow, and an unnamed eel. The travelers came to a river without a bridge. The eel swam under. The orator paused. Several asked what happened to Dementer. The orator answered: "Dementer is very angry with you for listening to fables when you ought to be minding public business."
End Procrastination Now tells how to substitute productivity for procrastination. See: http://www.amazon.com/End-Procrastination-Now-Psychological-Approach/dp/0071666087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311861229&sr=8-1
Dr. Bill Knaus
