Time to halt bipartisan ‘me, me, me’

The opinion polls seem to indicate Americans see the 113th Congress as the sorriest lot of do-nothing scoundrels to ever walk the marble hallways of the nation’s capitol. And, that’s saying something considering in his time Mark Twain said, “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”

History will judge the current Congress, but when it comes to what the 435 members of the House and 100 senators value most, it appears they are more alike than not. Almost to a person, when faced with the choice between service to country and service to self, few among them allow party to cloud their thinking. Service to self wins nearly every time among the elected class, proving a perverse form of bipartisanship is alive and well in Washington.

Let’s examine this week’s Whopper scandal to demonstrate why this is true.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Burger King was in the market to buy Tim Hortons, a Canadian coffee and donut chain. Burger King is mainly pursuing this acquisition to allow it to take advantage of a tax loophole that allows U.S. companies to move their headquarters out of the country to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Burger King is not the first or only U.S. company to consider such a move. Walgreens did until it changed direction a few weeks ago in the face of customer and public backlash. Burger King is navigating a similar public relations flame-licking. It took what seemed nanoseconds following Sunday’s news about Burger King for TV talking heads and others to threaten a boycott of all things Whopper.

But, protesting every company considering a move out of country to avoid paying U.S. taxes — as unpatriotic as such a move is — kind of misses the point. Our attention should be focused on Congress, the only body capable of stopping this destructive tide.

There are two things that Congress and Congress alone can do to stop companies from moving out of the country and taking American jobs and tax revenue with them. The first and most efficient is to pass a bill that closes the tax loophole. The second is to pass additional tax reform measures that simplify the U.S. tax code and remove the other existing corporate incentives to flee our shores.

A Democratic proposal to close this tax loophole has been sitting in a drawer for months, and a number of Republican proposals to reform the corporate tax code have been collecting dust since Ronald Reagan was president.

Both approaches have merit, but the Rs say they won’t consider the Ds’ proposal unless the Ds consider theirs. Or, is it the other way around? It doesn’t matter.

Both sides refuse to do the jobs they were elected to do, because they would rather spew heated rhetoric to imply they stand on some vague principal and point fingers in an attempt to place blame with the opposing party than take action that is good for the country.

Allowing American jobs and companies to leave home is more acceptable to most in Congress than finding a compromise that may not be immediately popular with some voters or — even worse in many a candidate’s opinion — some donors.

There is an election in November that will determine which impotent political party will have the most votes in Washington. For the first time in my adult life, I am not sure it will matter which party wins. The majority of Democrats and Republicans who are on the ballot share an ideology of self-interest. But, as disgusting as they seem, these office seekers are not alone to blame.

We voters have the power to change things. While it is important for us to identify what isn’t working in American politics, we need to remember it is up to us to elect people willing to do the job to the best of their ability — putting we before me — instead of those motivated to protect themselves.

Me, me, me.

It is time we stop the bipartisanship of self-preservation by electing representatives united in finding solutions to the problems our nation faces. We need to send a strong and unequivocal message to candidates.

It is no longer acceptable for a candidate to tell us what is wrong with the other side. To win our support, a candidate should prove he is willing to put his shoulder behind the proverbial wheel of our government and help move this country forward.

Partisanship will fade when we the people insist the interest of the many is placed before the interests of the elected few.

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This entry was first published in the print edition of the Des Moines Register. 
Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com