From the 1st Congress until today, there have always been ideologues elected to office. In most cases, these extremists have been out on the fringe of the debate and not really able to influence the outcome. For me, the mid-term election of 2010 was a threshold of sorts when the population of ideologues on the extreme Left and Right sides of the aisle got to be too large for their leadership to ignore. These radicals came to Washington intent on jamming their ideas down somebodies throat one way or another and the cost of government was their pivotal issue. The Debt Ceiling debates, as well as the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts, quickly became the tools used to force (or try to force) the extremist ideologies into law.
On the Right came the arguments that there would be no tax increases (i.e., expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts) and the “Entitlement” programs would be cut to balance the budget. From the Left came the equally strong argument that the “Entitlement” programs would not be touched in the process. A stalemate was the result and, with it the potential for a financial default by the United States. Both sides knew that the voters back home were dissatisfied with their performance. Something had to be done.
Eventually, the squabbling was put aside, temporarily, until after the 2012 Presidential election, by passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011. The Budget Control Act of 2011 was basically an agreement to raise the debt ceiling (thereby avoiding default) in exchange for near-term spending cuts that were greater than the increase. The Act also established the so-called “Super Committee” to hammer out additional deficit reduction measures totaling $1.5T over the next ten years. To be certain that the Committee would do their job, some really draconian, across-the-board, spending cuts were added to the legislation along with an equally large increase to the debt ceiling so that both sides of the extremist argument would find a way (some might argue a need) to reach a compromise. Across-the-board is synonymous with sequestration in government lingo. The Fiscal Cliff was born although the actual name would come along later when the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, used the term during his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee in early 2012.
The Super Committee met behind closed doors in late 2011. Near the end of November we learned that the Super Committee had been unable to reach agreement so the draconian measures would kick in at midnight on December 31st, 2012. The intractable ideologies had again proven to be beyond the unthinkable.
As an aside, I have offered my opinion in several of my blog posts, that rigid ideology is incompatible with democracy. This saga clearly backs up that opinion.
As we approached the end of 2012 and the implementation of the various Fiscal Cliff provisions there were calls from all sides for our Legislature to do something to avoid the inevitable outcome. Our Legislators did what they could agree on and that was to delay implementation for two months.
The reason all this is important is simply to set a foundation under a question. The extremists on both sides of the aisle used their ideology as a basis for their political maneuvers to protect the interests of their “base.” I use “base” here because these influences definitely don’t originate from the voters who make up their constituency. They worked hard to accomplish what they have accomplished and that is the implementation of the sequestration. So, why isn’t one side or the other standing up to proclaim victory? Why aren’t the politicians racing to the microphone to take credit for this wonderful work they have labored to accomplish? Why aren’t they busy cloaking themselves with credit for their good works instead of pointing fingers of blame at the other side? Every American needs to think this through and take appropriate action in November of 2014.
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