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Pushing the legislature: Bush shows the way

Apart from delivering the annual State of the Union address, US presidents rarely visit Capitol Hill. But one day in late May, US President George W. Bush went to visit his neighbors at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. He had only one goal in going to Capitol Hill. Two days later the Senate would vote on his massive tax-cut bill, and he had come to do some last-minute lobbying.

Bush's tax-cut proposal concerns the fulfillment of a campaign promise and will also influence his re-election bid. Thus no effort was spared to mobilize the entire White House. The vice president, the White House chief of staff, the Treasury secretary, the Budget Office director, and other administration officials were all given a lobbying "quota," and they mobilized all resources, including public and private connections, in the hope that the bill would pass through the House and Senate. Apart from making an exceptional appearance on Capitol Hill to win votes, Bush himself also remembered to ask local voters to call their congressmen when he gave speeches all around the country.

But even having made such an exhaustive effort, in the end the Republican-controlled House of Representatives reduced the scope of Bush's tax cuts from the original US$726 billion to US$550 billion. The Senate further reduced that figure to US$350 billion, which only garnered 50 votes in the 100 seat chamber. The bill passed thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Dick Cheney, who also serves as the president of the Senate.

Although Bush's tax cut was altered beyond recognition by the House and Senate and the scope of the bill fell short of his desired amount by US$376 billion, nevertheless he did not exercise his right of veto. He happily signed the bill into law and moreover proclaimed a historic victory. In the near future, all taxpayers will receive tax refund checks of varying amounts, and for Bush, a check is equivalent to a vote. No wonder he appears elated with his own success.

From the perspective of parliamentary politics, Bush's tax cut legislation is a textbook case of policymaking operations -- including administrative mobilization, congressional lobbying, negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties, congressional power, compromise, treachery, pressure from voters and even the pivotal role of the president. This is precisely what is meant by "parliamentary politics."

Although the power of the legislature can be almost unlimited, there is no historical precedent of a legislature that works against the national interest. Not only is the US president constrained by the House and Senate, but he must also frequently confront an opposition majority or an even split between the parties in congress. If their governing methods were the same as those of Taiwan's current administration, one can imagine the result would be even worse than in Taiwan, but Bush's tax cut proves that the US and Taiwan really are different.

When a government is capable only of political operations and not of policymaking operations, capable only of political mobilization and not of policymaking mobilization, capable only of mobilizing people after the fact and not of mobilizing people in advance, such a government is in fact administratively both indolent and impotent. Administrative indolence and impotence is followed by legislative indolence and impotence. Probably only a political outsider would believe the DPP when they place all the responsibility for legislative inaction on the legislature.

Wang Chien-chuang is president of The Journalist magazine.

Translated by Ethan Harkness
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