Think about this for a moment: Two days away from a federal shutdown, Congress comes up with a stopgap measure to keep the government operating — for a week. A few days later, it arrives at a bipartisan budget deal lasting a bit over four months. This, in turn, moves the president to take to Twitter with the following statement: “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!”

With respect to President Trump, this assertion seems more focused on settling political scores than on the good of the country. I believe there is no “good” shutdown. The last time it happened, in 2013, it cost the economy $24 billion, according to Standard & Poor’s at the time. National institutions get shuttered, federal loans and support for veterans are frozen, state and local governments face cash shortages, and the country’s most economically vulnerable must fend for themselves.

We’re the world’s greatest democracy, and every few months we must contemplate the very real possibility that the government might close its doors. How can it be that the most important document of the federal government — remember, the budget is the national blueprint for what we’ll do and how we’ll do it — gets handled in such a distressing, irrational, ineffective, uneconomic, and almost nonsensical manner? I’ll tell you how: We keep electing people who tell us they’re distressed about conducting business in this fashion and then year after year fail to get us back on track.

Because make no mistake, we know how to do it better. Congress did it for many decades. We had a steady annual process that offered the country a democratic and politically rational mechanism for deciding on our priorities and how to fund them.

We haven’t followed it since the middle of the 1990s. Instead, we’ve been forced to live with high-stakes fiscal brinksmanship. The current budget deal, negotiated between Republicans and Democrats, has the virtue of having included both parties at the table with give and take on both sides. But let’s not mistake it for good process. Congress is still putting the budget together with no accountability, no transparency, and scanty debate.

This is a real challenge to our representative democracy. The government faces enormous responsibilities at home and abroad, and the budget is the blueprint for how it’s going to deal with them. Isn’t it time we started getting it right?

Lee Hamilton is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years, representing a district in south central Indiana.

Some of us are getting back out in our gardens right about now. We’re starting to feel the warmth of spring and things are beginning to grow. It takes a lot of care and the right climate for our plants to flourish. The same could be said about growing our small businesses.

New York recently celebrated Small Business Day and I know many of us can think of the small mom-and-pop shops that we love in our communities. Yet, New York State government continues to play a role that is contrary to the efforts of small-business entrepreneurs.

Recently, the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax policy institution, ranked New York 49th in its 2017 State Business Tax Climate Index. Albany in many ways has allowed life-sucking weeds to grow — making what was the Empire State’s once fertile soil of economic growth turn hard and sunbaked. State government has imposed numerous fees, fines, and other red-tape policies that have nearly choked out small businesses, and made our state one of the most taxed in the country. I am thankful for those who, despite little respite or relief, have been able to open their doors and kept at it for as long as they have.

Studies suggest that for every $100, roughly $68 is generated in local economic activity. Furthermore, small businesses are the biggest employers in the state. The multiplier effect is evident.

So, shouldn’t New York State do everything it can to clear the way for small business growth?

The state government should be weeding out excessive taxes and fees on small businesses, which stunt growth. Flashy programs with no meat on the bone like the governor has proposed can do nothing if the barriers to growth remain.

I am proud to be a member of the Assembly Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry, where I advocate on behalf of Main Street small businesses. I am also a sponsor of the following several pieces of legislation that would clear the field for new growth.

• Small Business Full Employment Act (A.5423) — Reduces the tax burden on small businesses and would tackle the problem of overregulation in the state;

• Grow NY (A.6105) — Creates a pilot program that would provide grants to economic development agencies to assist second-stage small businesses;

• Eliminate Manufacturing Taxes (A.6758) — Removes the two most egregious and difficult taxes for manufacturers called the Corporate Franchise Tax, or what can be known as the job-killing tax, and the Personal Income Tax on manufacturers; and

• Learning for Work Program (A.4333) — Establishes a three-part program designed to create career-ready people upon high-school graduation. It would create a youth-apprenticeship program, an enhanced Regents professional degree and a youth-apprenticeship tax credit for the business.

New York State simply cannot say it’s for job and economic growth by throwing money at the problem. It must roll up its sleeves and dig in, uprooting every bad policy that gets in the way of small-business growth. I am willing to do it and I urge my colleagues to join me.

Marc W. Butler (R,C,I–Newport) is a New York State Assemblyman for the 118th District, which encompasses parts of Oneida, Herkimer, and St. Lawrence counties, as well as all of Hamilton and Fulton counties. Contact him at butlerm@assembly.state.ny.us