As if this would have not been expected, the US Congress cannot seem to agree with the Senate and the White House on a common solution for averting the fiscal cliff. Partisan interests dominate the public interest and if you are not outraged by this then you are either a political mollusk or a house plant.
Only a month ago we have elected a president with a solid mandate to solve our nations' problems.
Yet the Congress seems to be accountable to interest that do not coincide with the public's choice for executive leadership. In spite of this political stalemate and in light of the ominous economic implications of inaction on solving the fiscal cliff people seem to be passive and indifferent.
Where is the public outrage? Why aren't people going on the streets to stage large protests just like in the 1960s? Where is this public lethargy coming from? How is it that we have become the most indifferent nation to political gridlocks?
How can we allow the government to be in a perpetual state of conflict with itself and with the public that elected it? I am mystified and sad to see how political processes that exist to elect and support the government are completely ignored and even used against the public's interest.
Case in point: the fiscal cliff. If the government does nothing about its consequences most of the public will be worse off while the executive and the legislative bodies of our government will suffer no immediate consequences. They have 2 or 4 or 6 years to deal with the political consequences but we will have to deal with the economic consequences immediately. We will pay higher taxes immediately. We will have less of everything including debt but this is of no consequence during the next several months.
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