Op-Ed: How many Houses of Congress does it take to deal with one idea?

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And it’s likely to make a merry-go-round out of the stimulus package for the US economy.

There are three basic mechanisms involved in providing the machinery to keep America out of recession.

1. The White House stimulus initiative.

2. The Fed’s supply to the banks.

3. Treasury’s various measures to put an economic cultural plaster cast on the credit crunch and the compound fracture of the fiscal tibia.

The House of Reps and Senate agreed in principle to the fundamental idea of a stimulus package. Now, two plans have emerged. The Senate plan will have to reconcile with the House plan, which has now been passed.

The White House has said in so many words it doesn’t want “complications” with the bill. Not entirely unreasonable, because adding on bells and whistles isn’t the object.

It doesn’t do much for the basic legislative process, either, because it can use up a lot of time. Redrafts and rewrites of legislation, tabling, etc are a major deal, particularly when you're trying to get something done in a hurry.

The two Houses have been making a sort of hobby of this twin approach to legislation for years now. How many bills have been scuttled after months of work because of it?

This is an extremely important package. It’s what can be done, now, about the US economy. It’s not too flashy, and it’s not the whole fix, but it’ll at least put some money into some parts of the economy.

There’s even been some good bipartisan support, for once, in the House.

The New York Times has a blow by blow article which I wish I could call a summary:

“House leaders complained that while their plan would deny tax rebates to the wealthiest earners, the Senate package would not have any caps, meaning that lawmakers themselves would qualify for payments.

Ms. Pelosi had initially sought an extension of jobless benefits as well as a temporary increase in food stamps, but ultimately dropped those demands in favor of an agreement by the Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. to provide $28 billion in payments to more than 35 million families that would not otherwise have qualified for income tax rebates.”

Meaning the Senate plan is a bit more expensive. There are some basic differences. Majority leaders agree:

“I don’t want anything that’s done in the Senate, as much as I would support many of those initiatives, to do any harm to what we have done in our rebate package,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that all of those initiatives are not worthy, and in fact, I advocated for them myself. But instead we got a package that we could agree upon and move quickly with, and then we’ll deal with these issues.”

Mr. Baucus said that he, too, wanted a relatively simple stimulus plan. “I do not want to load it up with lots of other provisions,” he said. But he denied suggestions that he was complicating things by proposing a rival plan that would have to be reconciled with the measure adopted by the House.”

That hasn’t added up to a simple vote on an agreed package. This is an administrative measure, it’s extremely important.

The Senate measures include some benefits for low income people. The differences are about details, a few of which are arguably good stimulus for a bruised economy.

Of themselves, the various differences look very much like components of tax legislation which could be done separately, without slowing the stimulus package. Business tax breaks, for example, would qualify as ongoing issues, as the economic malaise gets further management initiatives.

Point being the stimulus package definitely isn’t the last word on the subject. More will have to be done, as the situation unfolds. Nothing set in stone now is likely to be the whole answer.

One thing the GOP and Democrats could do as parties is some pre-legislative facilitation. Two oars are required for the lifeboat, and arguing what color the oars should be isn’t productive, and never has been.

If it can be done on The West Wing, it can at least be tried on the real deal.

There’s not even any political point scoring, no malice, and no real intent to obstruct. It’s in the nature of this Siamese twin approach that these bills have been coming unstuck. Even in these relatively very benign circumstances, the machinery has found a way of not working.

Whoever’s the next President, the big job is going to be handling Washington, which has developed a talent for administrative dysfunction bordering on the obscene. Everything from troop movements to salaries has been an ordeal. The decision making process is looking more like a confetti manufacturer than a legislative operation.

A good place to start managing would be with installing the legislative software drivers that can clean up the “system conflicts” effectively.