In the last several years, I think Congress has come to truly embody the phrase, “a house divided.”
The Fiscal Cliff issue is just the longest line in a series of events the demonstrate how little Congress has been able to collaborate in order to accomplish their job of effectively administrating the nation. I like to think about what the causes and solutions are, but I am sure there isn’t anything too simple to proclaim. We can generally agree that much of the division is political in nature, to the point that I would say it is more politics than ideology that prevents Congress from coming together. Both groups agree that more debt is bad, but they have differing views on how to close the gap. The frustrating thing for me is that they want to balance a budget but what our country needs is to pay down the debt, which requires far more than just a balanced budget, it requires significant changes in our priorities for the long term. It is a tough economic challenge, as we understand current economic theory, to reduce spending while growing our economy. Most of our theory is based on the idea that spending is growth, and the challenge for the government is that they cannot rely on the private sector to lead the way with the spending, so they often “go first.” I think the last 5 years have shown that this does not always work as anticipated, as the the government has spent money while many corporations have hoarded it. What to do…
