Why does compromise involve doing wrong?

Why does compromise so often entail doing the wrong thing?

There are examples of this in so many places. In order for the media to be “fair and balanced” a discussion of the holocaust requires the participation of a holocaust denier. A geography debate need a flat-earther to complete the panel. A scientific examination of evolution or geology must have a creationist. In all of these hypothetical events, a representative of a clearly inappropriate point of view gets a place at the table. We are exposed to these “ideas” as a part of serious debate even though they aren’t a relevant to the discussion.

The same thing happens in politics. To retain unemployment benefits for our nearly 10% unemployed, it’s necessary to allow a substantial tax break for the very rich. The independent Congressional Budget Office scores unemployment compensation as the most effective approach to stimulating the economy among eleven tools they have identified for the job. The least effective of the eleven is tax cuts.

So, here again, in the interest of doing the right thing (spurring the economy) Congress must do the wrong thing, provide tax cuts that will do little, if any, for the economy.

David Stockman, budget director for Ronald Reagan for more than four years has been very visible on this subject in the past few weeks. Because he believes that tax cuts are not simulative to the economy (heresy for a Republican), he espouses letting the Bush tax cuts sunset for everyone.

BOB WYNHAUSEN

Sandpoint