D.C.’s Irreconcilable Differences

By Rick Manning
Americans are dissatisfied and frustrated with their government because our elected representatives seem unwilling to do what is in the obvious best interest of the nation.
In Washington, D.C. last week we saw the same tired dance that has led us to this budget mess as Republicans left town determined to force major budgetary cutbacks including possible changes to the nation’s soon to be insolvent Medicare system, while Democrats emerged from a meeting with the President emboldened that they will take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives over the Medicare issue.

Just one day after House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan explained to the President what his proposal to save Medicare entails, and Majority Leader Cantor urged the Democrats to quit demogoguing the issue, former Speaker Pelosi told ABC News, "What we want is to change the view that the Republicans have that it is OK to abolish Medicare [and] to make seniors pay more for less while we give tax breaks to big oil.”

Pelosi’s words coming straight from a White House meeting hardly inspire confidence that Obama and Congressional Democrats are going to embrace a bi-partisan “let’s get it done” attitude necessary to create a path to a balanced budget in this time of fiscal crisis.

In one statement, Pelosi encapsulated the entire problem in Washington.
Boldness in attempting to solve any problem is met with attacks by those who know that anyone who attempts to change the status quo is risking their political power and authority. So, the default response in Washington, DC is the “moderate” one, of doing nothing but tinkering around the edges of problems.
Unfortunately, the more than $14 trillion deficit our nation has amassed (more than $5 trillion since 2007) puts our entire economy in jeopardy, and time has run out for political gamesmanship.

Let’s be clear. Paul Ryan’s budget is not a radical document. It doesn’t balance the budget for twenty seven years! And that balance is only achieved if all of the positive economic projections are met (they won’t be.)
Twenty seven years to bring the budget to balance is nowhere near radical enough to be honestly considered as a solution to the fiscal crisis facing our nation.

Yet, Ryan’s proposal is viewed in some quarters as the equivalent of hiding FDR’s wheelchair on a meanness scale.
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