Opinion: Congress – The theater of the absurd
Against my own better judgment, I have been closely following the fiscal cliff process in Washington. It appears that the wisdom of our Founding Fathers was insufficient to ensure that this collective group of elected officials would address a major crisis in any useful way. I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t the end of the great American experiment in democracy. We apparently have reached near total paralysis, where the big issues are ignored or dealt with in a cursory fashion. I don’t see how this country can operate with a debt load so big and growing so fast that much of the resources our children create will have to be dedicated to paying off this burden. Our tax code promotes rather than reduces income inequality, and our defense budget reportedly exceeds that of the next 17 nations combined. We are faced with a climate crisis that could submerge coastal cities, and cripple our agricultural productivity and water supplies, yet the best Congress can do is extend the tax cred