Just about every news story this past Friday mentioned it. It was the 100th day of Donald Trump’s presidency, and with the decision of House leaders not to hold a vote on the ObamaCare repeal/replace yet, the magic date passed without a major legislative achievement so far in the Trump presidency.
It was an awfully big media narrative for an item of such utter irrelevance. I told you last Sunday to pack your patience, and you’re going to need it when you’re getting pelted with storylines like this.
Obama's filibuster-proof, 60-seat Senate majority, amidst the urgency of the mortgage market meltdown
As Dan explained recently, the whole “hundred days” thing is a standard based on what happened at the start of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency. It was an extraordinary moment in history, and just because FDR put a focus on the first 100 days doesn’t mean there’s anything especially important about that number for other presidents. It’s just a nice, round number.
But it’s easier to cover process than substance, I guess, so we’re now being treated all kinds of hundred-day assessments, as well as polls (already!) of whether the voters think Trump deserves re-election.
We’re also getting lots of comparisons to the first 100 days of the previous administration, when all kinds of action was taken with the help of a filibuster-proof, 60-seat Senate majority, and amidst the urgency of the mortgage market meltdown.
But let’s step back and consider a few things.
Why should Democrats get credit for passing bills quickly when the bills they passed hurt the country?
First, major legislation is in effect for an awfully long time once it’s passed. Whether you pass it on day 99 or day 200, its effect is the same. If excellent legislation passes in the coming months, it will be no less excellent because it didn’t pass in the first 100 days.
Second, bad legislation that passes in the first 100 days is still bad. The Democrats were very “productive” in 2009, but what they produced was horrible – highlighted by a spending blowout disguised as an “emergency stimulus” that was later baked into the long-term budget baseline. If you want to know why we saw deficits of $1 trillion for five years running, this is why. Why should they get credit for passing bills quickly when the bills they passed hurt the country?
Third, Republicans have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape U.S. policy on major issues like spending, health care, taxation and energy. Precisely because policy in these areas has been such a mess for decades, these are complicated problems to solve effectively. Have you ever been put in charge of solving a very difficult problem? Were you told, “Solve it fast, even if the solution makes no sense”?
Of course not. The sooner you can solve a problem, the better, of course. But getting it right is the most important thing, and these are issues previous Congresses have neglected to address for a very long time.
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But a very fractured Republican majority needs to figure out where its various factions can agree
Fourth, even with a Republican majority, this Congress is very fractured. There are a lot of differences between conservatives like the House Freedom Caucus and moderates like the Tuesday Group. They’re still struggling to find common ground on many issues. This would be true regardless of who the president was. What we have today is a Republican president ready to sign legislation that solves problems, unlike the previous president who signed legislation that either caused the problems or made them worse.
But a very fractured Republican majority needs to figure out where its various factions can agree. If that takes more than 100 days, then it does.
Let’s face it: We haven’t gotten very good results from the federal government in the past several decades. So maybe judging them by the usual standards, like how many bills they passed in the first 100 days of a presidency, isn’t the way to get to better results. I want to see quality. It’s much more important than quantity or speed. If the end result isn’t quality, then we need to say so.
How many days have passed, or the fact that the number is nice and round, means nothing.
