By the time you are reading this on Monday, it may be that calmer heads have prevailed in Washington and that the Congress and the president have found a way to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”
That is, IF the fiscal cliff even exists. There are some who believe it is a made-for-TV news fantasy, something along the lines of “Survivor.”
The difference between “Survivor” and the fiscal cliff is that at the end of the “Survivor” series, someone will be proclaimed the winner and go home with fame and a lot of money.
If America does go off the fiscal cliff — or even if it does not — the only winners will be those who manage to shift the blame to the other side.
Considering that the last time the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution was on April 29, 2009, don’t look for a major last-minute compromise. At best, there will be an emergency measure passed — as has been done several times in recent years — that merely will kick the can a little bit farther down the road.
The Senate does not deserve all of the blame for this, considering that the House of Representatives frequently passes budget resolutions it knows have no chance of coming to the Senate floor for consideration.
We believe the fiscal cliff is real. So do people whose families and businesses will face big tax increases this year. So do members of our military, whose services will be hit by huge budget cuts. So do those who will be confronted by loss of the government services upon which, through no fault of their own, they depend. And so on.
There are good people in our Congress, in both houses and in both parties. They have good intentions, or at least they start out that way. For too many, it seems the desire to serve the American people turns eventually into a need to do what is necessary to be re-elected.
What infects many of them is an unwillingness to compromise that basically takes the form of “I am right, and you are wrong, and you are a dirty (fill in your favorite expletive) who is morally and ethically corrupt for not agreeing with me.”
That is how it seems to work. It certainly sounds that way. Their arguing drowns out the voices of reasonable men and women who, after they had conducted an appropriate amount of arguing, could figure out what’s best for America.
Old-time politicians — including former senators and representatives and others at all political levels — have told us that’s how it used to be done.
Opinion
Related Photos
-
Fiscal cliff?
Fiscal cliff?
Nobody is going to win this political ‘Survivor’
- Opinion
-
-
Maryland has stopped being “The Free State”
I am a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and, last but not least, the National Rifle Association. I am a yearly member of the American Legion.
-
Outrageous
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
This amounts to spying on an American news organization — common practice in dictatorships but scary conduct in a democratic system that prizes the public value of an independent watchdog press. -
Save the Bridge Program
Please do not close the Frostburg United Methodist Church Bridge Program. The community and many families need this program. Let me enlighten you about a few things.
-
It’s good to be the queens
One of the many nuggets of knowledge that Crash Davis tried to bestow upon Nuke LaLoosh in the movie Bull Durham was that ‘strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they’re fascist.’
-
Harper just needs to stop scoring the wall
• Happy birthday, Brooks Robinson. No. 5 will be 76 tomorrow.
Remember, in the words of Gordon Beard, “Brooks Robinson never asked anybody to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore people name their children after him.” -
Town of Westernport needs a police force and a curfew
Since the consolidation of Bruce and Valley high schools the town of Westernport rapidly deteriorated from what was once a quite respectable community to a community in a decline in residents, and along with that came a collapse in local government due to lack of knowledge and bad decisions that set the town of Westernport back 60 years.
One bad decision was to give up their police force, and with no constant visual law enforcement it has created an open range for drug dealerss, addicts, thieves, drunks and speeding vehicles that choose to ignore our city laws and speed limits and have totally disregard for the safety of the citizens who are on the streets, especially the children who are like deer, you don’t see them until their in front of you. -
Financial gutting will damage school system
I am writing in response to the Allegany County Commissioners’ efforts to cut local education spending to the lowest possible level allowed under state law.
-
Cemetery organization plans events to mark Memorial Day
This upcoming Memorial Day marks the 30th anniversary of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization (CHCO).
-
Rowley proof of experience breeding opportunity
When Bob Rowley learned of the fund-raising efforts to help provide Fort Hill football player Zac Elbin the opportunity to play in the Down Under Bowl this summer in Australia, it became a mere reflex for him to make a significant contribution on Elbin’s behalf. For while very few area high school football players have followed in his footsteps, Rowley, the former Fort Hill great from the late 1950s, had certainly walked in Elbin’s, having faced similar circumstances following his senior year in high school. And thanks to the support of the community, Rowley says he was able to realize an opportunity of a lifetime.
-
Better fix it
The West Virginia Division of Highways should not give up on improving safety at the intersection of U.S. Route 220 and Stoney Run Road in Keyser merely because the intersection does not meet the state’s criteria for a traffic signal.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
Maryland has stopped being “The Free State”
