It is times like these that I wish we had a Parliamentary system of government--where national elections could be called on short notice--and everyone could be voted out in an instant. That way, all of the members of Congress currently involved in the standoff over the Sequester could be sent packing--while the issue is still top of mind.
We are at the latest deadline for the "Fiscal Cliff" and neither house of Congress is scheduled to hold a vote on anything today. There's nothing scheduled for tomorrow either. So it would be pretty safe to assume that the Sequester is going to happen--and nothing will be done about it. And everyone in Washington is to blame for that.
We can start with President Obama. What is his plan? What specific details can you cite that the President has laid out that will move the US away from the current debt ceiling and toward deficit reduction? Don't feel bad if you can't answer that--because there isn't a plan. The President's plan has been: "Congress, come up with some solution here."
And speaking of Congress, how many stories have you heard this week, this month or this year about party leaders getting together to hash out an agreement? How many debates have been held on the floor of Congress going late into the night this month arguing the points of a potential solution? Again, don't feel bad if you can't name any--because there haven't been any. The past month has been spent making appearances on news channels and Sunday morning talk shows and making YouTube videos and Tweeting and Facebooking.
We as Americans deserve better than this. We deserve representatives that actually make an effort to fix problems--rather than defend turf. We deserve politicians that are willing to compromise on a few small things so that bigger issues can be resolved. And we deserve leaders who will actually LEAD--who will confront problems head on and try to fix them as soon as possible--not at the absolute last minute.
Of course, when you consider that just four months ago we sent the vast majority of the clowns who have acted like this for years right back to Washington, maybe we are getting what we deserve.
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One of your comments struck a nerve with me. You said that Americans deserve better than this. I would ask what we've done to deserve better.
ReplyDeleteWe pay more attention to American Idol and football than our government. When we occasionally do pay attention to government we allow ourselves to be distracted by non-issues and irrelevancies rather than attending to substantive issues. We listen to sound bites and allow commentators to do our thinking for us.
We deserve something by earning it. After I've worked, not before, I deserve to sit down for the evening with my feet up.
We have exactly the politicians and government we deserve to have, the government we have earned by our care and attention to it.
Mark Arend