Kurt Couchman

"There is enormous inertia—a tyranny of the status quo—in private and especially government arrangements. Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. ..."

Failed vision inside a broken system: Congress doing some of the 12 appropriations bills separately, later collapsing into a closed omnibus bill. Obviously better: One budget bill with all spending and revenue with pieces built by the committees responsible for managing them.

AND, @RepNateMoran just dropped the Principles-Based Balanced Budget Amendment. ✅ Provides a 10-year deficit phase-out once confirmed via states. ✅ Emergency spending only via 2/3rds majority. ✅ Congress can still set out policies to achieve balance. moran.house.gov/news/documents…

A BBA vote is coming to the US House in September. Let’s do it right.

Germany is in a pickle. Good: A constitutional mandate for a comprehensive budget with all spending and revenue. Bad: Blocking the legislature from managing the out years (yellow highlight). Ugly: Old-age spending squeezes everything else and puts balance out of reach.

Governors should get to do the State of the State address ONLY AFTER the legislature gets the governor's budget request. "Budget first, then speech" makes the speech and responses more substantive and improves legislative-executive dialogue. Green is good:

Legislative branch appropriations are less than half of one percent of appropriations, which are just a quarter of spending, @SenJohnKennedy. A weak Congress can't do the job Americans need it to do: review everything and scale back what isn't worth doing as much of.

Irregular order in a poorly organized Congress encouraged many to call on the agencies to exercise legislative powers within vague laws, and agencies often obliged. It has been bad for democracy, accountability, and durable problem-solving. The key to rebalancing the federal…

Coming soon: E-book on August 1, physical book on August 19! Open to podcasts, interviews, events, and more!

Too much federal debt saps our prosperity. From @_JackSalmon_ on "The Unseen and The Unsaid" Substack.

State legislators' push for a Convention of States for constitutional amendments like a BBA has been lots of talk but limited action. When crisis comes, state legislatures will act. And then, members of Congress will regret their failure to get ahead of it.

The "right" amount of defense spending reflects threats, technology, geopolitics, location, burden sharing, other uses of funds, net benefits against financing incl. deadweight losses, & more: the emergent outcome of a deliberative process. Some %GDP doesn't capture reality.

The Carter Administration created the possibility of shutdowns. Congress should reverse that mistake in the deal to end or avoid a shutdown this fall.

Oh, yes, the old sudden surge in greed. Good thing polls don't translate directly into policy!

Inside beltway thinking--first line in recent Urban Institute report: SNAP is "the most effective defense against hunger in the country." What about markets, which miraculously distribute $2 trillion in food each year to 1 million food stores and restaurants across our vast land?

U.S. passenger enplanements are on track to pass 1 billion per year soon.

It’s good for legislators to get along, even be friends, though they see the world differently. The problem is when all they can do is kabuki theater because the broken system doesn’t let them seek common ground and make things work better through legislation nearly enough.

One of the biggest political mistakes ever: unilateral disarmament while driving a bold agenda.

The shutdown-ending deal will be a prime opportunity to improve the way Congress works.