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文章来源：《经济学人》Nov 19th 2022 期 Leaders 栏目
A wish-list of centrist proposals for the lame-duck Congress
对跛脚鸭国会的中间派建议的愿望清单
All we want
我们想要的一切
Good things come in threes. But we’re greedy and have five
【1】lame-duck 跛脚鸭 [指处于困境需要帮助的人、事物或机构]好事成三。但我们很贪婪，有五个愿望
Nov 23rd 2022
When members of Congress return to Washington next week, Thanksgiving will be over and the annual festival of asking for stuff will begin. The Economist has its own wish-list for members of the House and Senate in the lame-duck session, when legislators can be more open to doing business. Since the biggest obstacle to these wishes being granted is the Senate filibuster, which means finding ten Republican votes, this list is particularly aimed at the five Republican senators who are retiring, plus those who voted for the chips Act and infrastructure law, both of which passed with Republican support. In journalism, branches of government and adorations of the Magi, three is the magic number. But we are greedy, so here are five.
在美国,11月总统和国会选举后、下年初新选出公职人员宣誓前的时期,被称作跛脚鸭时期。1933年以前,国会和总统宣誓就职在3月4日举行。当时国会通常有两个会期,当中第二个会期为选举后的12月至明年3月。这段会期被称作跛脚鸭会期。 当国会议员们下周返回华盛顿时，感恩节将结束，一年一度的讨要节将开始。《经济学人》对跛脚鸭会期的参众两院议员有自己的愿望清单，届时议员们可以更开放地做事。由于实现这些愿望的最大障碍是参议院的阻挠议事，这意味着要找到10个共和党人投赞成票，所以这份清单特别针对5个即将退休的共和党参议员，加上那些投票支持芯片法案和基础设施法案的参议员，这两项法案都是在共和党的支持下通过的。在新闻界、政府部门和对东方三博士的崇拜中，三是一个神奇的数字。但我们很贪婪，所以这里有五个。
First, hundreds of thousands of people brought to America as children—the Dreamers—still have to reapply every two years for permission to remain in the country. America’s immigration system has plenty of problems, but the inability of Congress to tackle this one is striking. Do the retiring members of Congress want their successors to think it was beyond them? Some Dreamers are entering middle age. Do Senate Republicans want to keep up the pretence that they may one day be deported? And, if so, where to?
首先，成千上万在儿童时期被带到美国的人--梦想家，仍然需要每两年重新申请居留许可。美国的移民制度有很多问题，但是国会无力解决这个问题令人震惊。即将退休的国会议员是否希望他们的继任者认为这超出了他们的范围？ 一些梦想家正步入中年。参议院的共和党人想继续假装他们有一天会被驱逐出境吗? 如果是，去哪里?
Second, fund Ukraine’s heroic resistance. Vladimir Putin’s strategy is to wait out the West, bomb and freeze Ukraine into submission. Ukraine needs to know that its Western allies have more patience than Mr Putin thinks they do. Funding support for Ukraine until the end of 2023, or even better until the end of 2024, would undermine his plan. The combination of American weapons and Ukrainian bravery has worked well so far. Out of the total Congress made available, about $19bn of security assistance has already gone to Ukraine. That is less than 4% of the Pentagon’s annual budget. The administration has asked Congress to grant a further $38bn, most of it for security. What this money buys is priceless—not only Ukrainian resistance, but also American protection from Mr Putin’s aggression. Senate Republicans have been firm supporters of Ukraine. House Republicans, who from January will be in the majority, may be less so.
第二，为乌克兰的英勇抵抗提供资金。弗拉基米尔•普京的策略是等待西方退出，轰炸和冻结乌克兰，使其屈服。乌克兰需要知道，它的西方盟友比普京认为的更有耐心。为乌克兰提供资金支持直到2023年底，要是直到2024年底更好，这都会破坏他的计划。到目前为止，美国的武器和乌克兰的勇气相结合的效果很好。在国会提供的全部援助中，约190亿美元的安全援助已经流向乌克兰。这还不到五角大楼年度预算的4%。美国政府已要求国会再拨款380亿美元，其中大部分用于安全。这笔钱买到的东西是无价的——不仅是乌克兰的抵抗，还有美国对普京侵略的保护。参议院共和党人一直是乌克兰的坚定支持者。从明年1月起将成为多数党的众议院共和党人可能不会这么做。
Third, pass a reform of the Electoral Count Act of 1887. This law seemed archaic until Donald Trump used it to advance the theory that state legislatures could overturn election results, or that the vice-president could decide the outcome. The reform that emerged from the Senate’s rules committee makes it clear that the vice-president’s role is ceremonial and that state legislatures cannot simply declare an election “failed”. It also speeds up the legal process for resolving electoral disputes. Passing it would help prevent a repeat of the January 6th violence, when Trump fans invaded Congress to force the result to change. It would also be a sign that America is repairing its democracy. Plenty of Republican senators have expressed support.
第三，通过1887年《选举计数法》的改革。这条法律似乎过时了，直到唐纳德·特朗普利用它来推进这样一种理论: 州立法机构可以推翻选举结果，或者副总统可以决定结果。参议院规则委员会提出的改革明确指出，副总统的角色是仪式性的，州立法机构不能简单地宣布选举“失败”。它还加快了解决选举争端的法律程序。通过该法案将有助于防止1月6日的暴力事件重演，当时特朗普的粉丝侵入国会，想要强迫选举结果发生改变。这也将是美国正在修复其民主制度的一个迹象。许多共和党参议员表示支持。
Fourth, raise the debt ceiling until the next presidential election is over. Even after Congress has appropriated money, members are asked whether they want to permit the maximum borrowing allowed, if extra is needed to make good on the ious they have written. A request to raise the debt ceiling comes around about once a year, though sometimes it is more frequent than that. Congress has always voted in favour, though it has occasionally done so late and only after throwing a tantrum. The incoming Republican House majority may want to use the debt-ceiling vote to extract concessions from the White House. But it is an empty threat: a sovereign default would crash the world economy and make America poorer and weaker. There are better ways to shrink the size of the state that do not involve making millions of people unemployed and destroying America’s creditworthiness. Better not to pretend it is an option.
【1】throw or have a tantrum 使性子第四，提高债务上限，直到下届总统大选结束。即使在国会拨款之后，议员们也会被问及是否允许最大限度的借款，如果需要额外的借款来偿还他们所写的借条。提高债务上限的要求大约每年都会出现一次，尽管有时会比这更频繁。国会总是投赞成票，尽管它偶尔很晚才投赞成票，而且会在大发脾气后才投赞成票。即将在众议院获得多数席位的共和党人可能希望利用债务上限问题的投票来迫使白宫做出让步。但这一威胁只是虚张声势: 主权债务违约将使世界经济崩溃，使美国更穷更弱。在不造成数百万人失业、不破坏美国信誉的情况下，有更好的方法来缩减政府的规模。最好不要假装这是一种选择。
Fifth, reform permitting laws to make it easier to build new green-energy projects (including nuclear ones) and new electric grids. The misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act has opened up the possibility of a clean-technology revolution that would benefit America’s workers and slash its carbon emissions. But none of this will happen if new projects are delayed for decades by misguided rules on environmental permitting. This is an area where the White House, the swing Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, and Senate Republicans all agree.
第五，改革许可法律，使建设新的绿色能源项目(包括核能项目)和新的电网更加容易。这个名字误导人的《通货膨胀削减法案》开启了一场清洁技术革命的可能性，这将使美国工人受益，并减少碳排放。但是，如果新项目因环境许可方面的错误规定而拖延几十年，这一切都不会发生。在这个问题上，白宫、摇摆不定的民主党参议员乔•曼钦和参议院共和党人都达成了共识。
Honour the midterm spirit
One of the heartening outcomes of the midterm elections was that the extremes did badly. Democratic candidates ditched ideas like defunding the police and were rewarded for their moderation. Our analysis of results found that Republican candidates backed by Mr Trump did about five points worse than they would have without his endorsement, and election deniers did even worse. This is a good moment to turn the reassertion of the moderate centre into a legislative programme. ■
中期选举令人振奋的结果之一是，极端党派表现糟糕。民主党候选人抛弃了诸如撤资警察等想法，并因其温和而获得奖励。我们对结果的分析发现，得到特朗普支持的共和党候选人的支持率比没有他的支持要低约5个百分点，而否认选举结果的人的支持率甚至更低。这是一个把对温和中间派的主张转变为立法计划的好时机。■ |
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发表于 2022-12-12 20:42:34
