A government divided
The Republicans need to assume their responsibility to avoid fiscal cliff
The fiscal cliff countdown is underway. Democrats and Republicans have only six days left to avoid draconian budget cuts and tax hikes that they themselves had designed.
That we are in this unacceptable position is the result of the inability of our legislators to arrive at an agreement on the budget and the debt over the past two years. Despite the fact that we’ve had elections with winners and losers, things don’t seem to have changed.
The difference now however is that the White House has the moral authority in this debate because it won re-election. President Obama is not in the same position he was when he negotiated before under the cloud of the Republican-led victory in the House of Representative. This time, the President has offered concessions in these negotiations some even at odds with his own base but that is because he knows he must do his part for an agreement to be reached.
Unfortunately, the doctrinaire rigidity of the Republican legislators has not lessened. Their fervor so intense that over 20 House Republicans refuse to back any tax increases at all, dooming the plan proposed by the President and his backers.
Yet, passage in the House is necessary in order to avoid the crisis. For a compromise to pass, a group of Republicans will have to vote with the Democrats. While these types of alliances are not uncommon, it could fracture the Republican wing even further.
The picture isn’t much prettier in the Senate. Democrats say they won’t come forward with a bill until they receive a Republican guarantee that they will not filibuster. Even with that, it only takes one senator to block a bill, and there are a number of fervent anti-tax Republicans.
The responsibility rests with the Republicans to accept raising taxes on the nation’s wealthiest. This was the position backed by the majority of voters in Obama’s re-election.
Our government is divided between the Democratic White House and the Republican-led House. Each side must do the responsible thing to avoid the fiscal cliff. The problem is that there are too many Republican legislators consumed by their own ideology and self-interested in their own political futures.
For a divided government to govern, we need so much more.
