Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds Fear of a Debt Crisis

[ShockediSay]

Source: NYTimes

Senator Evan Bayh’s comments this week about a dysfunctional Congress reflected a complaint being directed at Washington with increasing frequency, and there is broad agreement among critics about Exhibit A: The unwillingness of the two parties to compromise to control a national debt that is rising to dangerous heights.

After decades of warnings that budgetary profligacy, escalating health care costs and an aging population would lead to a day of fiscal reckoning, economists and the nation’s foreign creditors say that moment is approaching faster than expected, hastened by a deep recession that cost trillions of dollars in lost tax revenues and higher spending for safety-net programs.

Yet rarely has the political system seemed more polarized and less able to solve big problems that involve trust, tough choices and little short-term gain. The main urgency for both parties seems to be about pinning blame on the other, before November’s elections, for deficits now averaging $1 trillion a year, the largest since World War II relative to the size of the economy.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/business/economy/17gridlock.html

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It's the Lobbyists Stupidos!

Month after month more tax deductible dollars are spent on THE ONE RECESSION PROOF JOB - Lobby Lawyer.

Why allow tax deductions for these influence peddlers, when it just screws up what used to be a democracy, and puts us deeper and deeper into debt?

WHY?

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pretzel4gore]

2. no $ limits before, so why $ limits now?

it defies common sense. but then again, 911 was a crime and not an attack on USA by Giant Killer Tomatoes- which is what bushinc claimed, i think it was, and were thus able to invoke the Natsecstapo (national security state poolice) to oversee the immense military response, keeping america safe.
either the nazipoohs are genius es, or we are acting like they are genius es!

[sybylla]

3. Self-delete

Misread the original post.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Fear, fear. Feed, feed.

:patriot:

[Skidmore]

5. It's not polarized and there is a clear majority but no will

to do what they were sent there for.

[FarCenter]

6. Maybe we should set up a "Lobbyist Commission"

Since the Representatives and Senators tend to do what the lobbyists tell them (and lobbyists actually provide the text for the bills), it would seem that better progress could be made if we could get the lobbyists to arrive at some compromises.

For example, take financial regulation. Instead of continuing with roadblocked Congressional committees, why not get all the lobbyists representing various sides of the issue together and start to see whether a multi-lobbyist compromise can be worked out. Once agreement is reached among the lobbyists, it should be a simple matter to have Congress rubber-stamp it.