The road has ended at the proverbial financial cliff. At 12:01 a.m. on January 1, 2013, our country goes off the cliff as the so called “Bush Era” tax cuts expire, the Federal income tax on capital gains increases to 20 percent, mandated spending cuts to Medicare and the military of $65 billion must be made, and the new “Obama Care Tax” of 3.8 percent begins.
It all just happens, consequences notwithstanding. Many economic experts believe our struggling economy won’t be able to survive the fall off this cliff and another recession will be born from the fall. Our current political environment puts great importance on “who is to blame?” So who is to blame for this? The answer, I venture is, our president and the Congress; all of them, everyone.
For the last three years our elected officials in Washington – all of them, everyone – have failed to address these issues through the constitutionally required budgetary process. Our elected officials in Washington – all of them, everyone – have simply passed temporary spending legislation to keep the Federal government running. Our elected officials in Washington – all of them, everyone –have just kept kicking the can down the road instead of making the hard decisions for which they were sent to Washington in the first place.
Well, we have run out of road. The cliff awaits. Leadership from our elected officials in Washington – all of them, everyone – fell off to the side of the road a long time ago. Partisan politics is being driven by personal animosity on the road, and the road has ended. But in today’s political climate we just want to know: "Who is to blame?”
With the presidential election process well under way, Congress on summer recess, and personal animosity at the wheel, there is no time to change the resulting fall from the cliff. It does not matter who wins the presidential election or which political party has the majority of Congress; time has run out.
So who is to blame for all of this? Again, I venture, our president and the Congress – all of them, everyone. How could we have let this happen? When we got swept up in the partisan politics and jumped in the front seat with personal animosity, we allowed leadership to fall off the side of the road.
We stopped demanding it from our president and the Congress – all of them, everyone. Without leadership, the cliff awaits.
