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Gridlock in government1/21/2024 ![]() ![]() The most common public response to these developments has been to blame our elected representatives for engaging in petty partisanship, to charge that they are beholden to “special interests,” and to insist that all would be fine if our leaders would only listen to “the people.” But “the people” are really a fractious and increasingly partisan lot, and in 2012 they sent back to Washington nearly all of the hyper-partisan politicians who had achieved such stunningly low approval ratings during the previous two years. Meanwhile, its approval rating has slipped below 10 percent, to the lowest levels ever recorded. Most important, almost everyone recognizes that in coming years we must both raise taxes and cut entitlements in order to avert fiscal disaster, yet Congress has taken no significant steps in that direction. ![]() But Congress after Congress has done nothing. Everyone knows that Social Security is headed toward insolvency, and that the longer we wait, the harder it will be to fix the problem. The legislative branch has yet to revise a national immigration policy that pleases no one, or even to pass a stripped-down version of pathway-to-citizenship legislation that enjoys widespread popular support. After months of tense negotiations, Congress and President Barack Obama barely avoided going over the “fiscal cliff” in January, and their last-minute agreement leaves many more months of inconclusive bargaining to come. It is hard to find a news article on Congress these days in which the word “gridlock” does not figure prominently. ![]()
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