'Pork Barrel Politics’ is America's Downfall

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'Pork Barrel Politics’ is America's Downfall

Wondering why the world’s greatest power is unable to assist its citizens in time of crisis? According to this op-ed article from Venezuela’s El Universal, George W. Bush is only a symptom of the problem. The real issue is systemic control by special interests and America’s ‘highly atomized bureaucracy.’

By Alfredo Toro Hardy

Sept 15, 2005

Original Article (Spanish)

Last week we spoke of how the money for the improvement of the docks of New Orleans had been seen seriously restricted, in the same way that funds required to modernize the American electrical grid have failed to materialize. This in spite of the fact that the tragedy that has occurred in that historic city was forecast well in advance, just as are the blackouts and losses of voltage that annually cost the country 1.1% of its GDP. Of course, the priorities of the Bush Administration, its emphasis on developing weapons and Bush’s profile as a war president have a lot to do with this.

Nevertheless, beyond the preferences of its present government, the real problem is the very nature of the American political system and its decision-making process. There we find the biggest cause of these failures.

First of all, it is necessary to make reference to America’s highly atomized bureaucracy. An endless number of Federal Agencies act within a rigid organizational framework, so that each tends to see the world from its own narrow perspective, in tension with the implementation of federal directives.

Secondly, it appears that the U.S. Congress is fractured into more than 300 subcommittees with their own individual criteria, freedom of action and points of view.

Thirdly, we find that each economic sector has transformed itself into a pressure group. Whenever these groups converge on a federal agency, both congressional subcommittees or economic sectors behave like "lobbies," with clearly converging interests.

The federal agencies are in charge of regulating, supervising or authorizing the activities of certain economic sectors. Here, economic sectors are dependent on federal agencies. Since subcommittees of Congress approve the budgets and supervise the operations of the federal agencies, the agencies are dependent on the congressional subcommittees.

Finally, the economic sectors usually assume the task of financing the campaigns of members of Congress by way of contributions, basically through what is known as "Political Action Committees." It is here that members of Congress are most dependent on the economic sectors. In brief, each one scratches the back of the other.

Innumerable such "Iron Triangles" exist, of course, including for example, the one that involves the nuclear energy industry. There, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulates the activities of private companies dedicated to producing nuclear power. The Nuclear Energy subcommittee approves the budget for and supervises the agency, and private companies in this sector constitute a natural source of electoral financing for members of the subcommittee.

In sum, they all dance together and satisfy each other’s interests, or they all lose. Naturally, they all tend to dance very well together. This behavior is repeated in almost every sector of the economy: banking, the tobacco industry, automobiles, aerospace, etc. Of course, each one of these triangles is self-interested, and so is little concerned with other economic sectors.

Given this order of things, what is known in Washington political jargon as "pork barrel politics" proliferates. That is to say, the action of these power triangles brings them substantial benefit at the expense of the public. So, unless one has cause for direct concern, none of these Iron Triangles could care less for the docks of New Orleans or the blackouts of New York and California. This is the very essence of a system based on interest groups.