It’s a mark of how pathetic the U.S. Congress is, that on New Year’s Day night, the House decided it could vote on a plan to end the so-called “fiscal cliff” after the Senate voted New Year’s Eve.
Speaker of the House John Boehner sent the bill to the floor with the basic idea of if it passes it passes if it doesn’t then the membership has spoken after Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell worked out the agreement.
There is something for everyone not to like about the legislation. Both sides were unhappy, but then, who cares?
Americans wanted action because the cliff debacle was hurting their pocketbook. Whether it was increasing taxes or a tanking stock market if the cliff wasn’t resolved, regular Americans wanted action and got last minute theatrics.
Surely we can do better at this governing thing but where’s the fun with that.
Roger Simon writing last Thursday in Politico noted “To call what happened on Capitol Hill over the past few days Kabuki is to insult Kabuki. What actually happened was more like ancient farce when actors used to come out and hit each other over the head with socks full of cowpies.”
Anyone up for picking up a cow chip and flinging it at the closest rep or senator?
Congress has to realize that Americans are bringing a new perspective to the federal budgeting/debt/deficit equation.
More than any time in history we’re invested in the U.S. economy.
It may not be much or as much as we need, but with defined benefit pension plans going the way of the dodo, a large number of us are invested in the nation’s markets through 401k plans or other pension alternatives.
What happens to the markets matters.
If the stock market had tanked because we went over the fiscal cliff that means our investments, the values of our pensions, would tank as well.
For many of us we’re just starting to see the value of our investments return to their pre-recession levels. Those still working can hope to see a continuation of growth so the funds are in great shape when they retire. Those of us who are retired can breathe a little easier as the values we count on to provide income continue to rise when we need it.
It’s amazing to think that those who encourage “take care of yourself” and promote mutual funds and investment in the free market system would play a political game of chicken that spooks the markets that we’ve dutifully invested in and
more and more depend on for our financial security.
Now that the fiscal cliff is behind us (as well it should be given the artifice that it was in the first place) we’ll see the sides starting to line up over the debt ceiling limit which is also an artificial barrier that enables both side to demagogue.
As Simon can probably note for that spectacle it too will not be Kabuki but rather ancient farce. Can’t say he and I didn’t warn you.
Expanded readings
Ross Douthat isn’t my favorite columnist at The New York Times (that title would go to the acerbically spot-on Maureen Dowd), but he came up with a great column Dec. 30 pushing readers to expand what they read in 2013.
Douthat noted that given there are no mid-term elections in 2013 and it’s way too early for the 2016 campaign to start, it’s time to spend the year getting out of our political comfort zones by ranging widely in our political readings.
Here are his steps for a wider-ranging political and philosophical look in 2013: Take out a subscription to a magazine opposite of what you normally read i.e. if you read The New Yorker take out a subscription to the Weekly Standard. Second, grow geographically. If you enjoy the British-accented The Economist, read the London Review of Books and The Spectator. And third, read outside the conventional looking for the marginal and idiosyncratic.
He also suggests reading the people on the Internet “who are too naïve or radical or bigoted to entrust with any kind of power, but who nonetheless might offer an insight that you wouldn’t find in the more respectable quarters of the press.
If these exercises work, they’ll make 2013 a year that unsettles your mind a little — subjecting the views you take for granted to real scrutiny, changing the filters through which you view the battles between Team R and Team D, reminding you that more things are possible in heaven and earth than are dreamed of by John Boehner and Harry Reid.”
I like the idea, you?
Kendall P. Stanley is retired editor of the Petoskey News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net.
