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The Beltway crowd has been glued to political media for the last few weeks, watching the real-life drama of budget showdowns, bipartisan backroom deals, the historic removal of a speaker of the House, and the chaotic drama of electing a new one on the fourth try. What escapes those in the Washington bubble, as it often does, is that political insiders are the only ones who care about the intricate chess moves that lead to a complete lack of progress. The average American is not at all interested in the soap opera and simply wants Washington to fade into the background and function at the most basic level.
The current situation gives people little hope for the kind of routine government action that encourages Americans to turn their attention elsewhere. The House was able to avert a shutdown as government funding expired on Oct. 1, but it cost former Speaker Kevin McCarthy his job and now the still mostly disorganized chamber has less than a month to pass appropriation bills. In this drama, no side has emerged a clear political winner with a plurality of all voters (and Republicans specifically) saying everyone involved is equally to blame.
The chaos on the Hill undermines the confidence in the federal government we need to have a functional society. Polling conducted in early September by the Partnership for Public Service, before most Americans realized Congress was on a collision course with a funding deadline, showed two-thirds of Americans would feel less trust in the federal government if there was a threat of a shutdown. This number is almost certainly higher today. And while it is too soon to see polling on how Americans view the drama in the House, data from January's speaker battle tells us that most Americans don't like the drawn out, uncertain process Republicans spent the last few weeks replicating.
The idea of trust in the federal government falling is troubling, if understandable, considering the numbers are already at record lows. The number of voters who have a high level of trust in the federal government is below 10 percent according to Gallup polling and hasn't been significantly higher since the early 2000s—and its historical data shows that's actually up from certain points over the last two years.
In most cases, the solution to an incompetent federal government is to let the states take on more of the challenges facing the people, as was the original intent of our system of government. Policy addressing the economy, taxes, education, health care, regulation of industry and many other things not specifically delegated to the federal government are best handled at the state level. Voters see the benefit of letting state government take more of a lead—a poll from Morning Consult and State Policy Network showed 61 percent of voters think state and local politicians are better at getting things done, with equal number of Democrats and Republicans agreeing. And only one-third think state and local politics are as tribal and divisive as Washington, which makes those levels better at good governance.
But there are limits to what the states can do if the federal government ceases to function. The American people still send tax dollars to Washington during a shutdown, even if services stop in their respective states. States have built their budgets and programs around a common understanding of what the federal government will provide for the tax money it forgoes, such as nutritional assistance programs, or work on long-term infrastructure projects. States are of course free to reconsider these agreements, but it is unrealistic to expect state bureaucracy to pivot on just a few days' notice and for an undetermined duration.
Over time states could fill gaps from an ineffective federal government, and perhaps if this is how Congress is going to operate, they should consider it. But there are many duties given specifically to the federal government it must fulfill. Good policy and responsible spending on immigration, border security, foreign aid, and the military can only be addressed by a Congress that is currently so mired in drama it continuously fails at its most important and basic job of appropriating government funds. Politicians who concern themselves more with Washington games, rather than governing, are likely to find the longer they stay in the spotlight, the less people like them.
Erin Norman is the Lee Family fellow and senior messaging strategist at State Policy Network.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
