Political opportunism and economic stagnation

Quite pos­si­bly never in our nation’s his­tory have Wash­ing­ton politi­cians been more fun­da­men­tally divided about the future direc­tion of spend­ing and tax­a­tion deci­sions. Some­times, it would seem, polit­i­cal grid­lock can be a desir­able out­come, since Con­gress seems almost dev­il­ishly capa­ble of wreak­ing havoc with our nation’s econ­omy, given the some­times short-sighted fis­cal pol­icy actions enacted. At the present time, how­ever, the polit­i­cal gridlock/opportunism/cowardice (pick your favorite descrip­tive term) that infects law­mak­ers is par­tic­u­larly destruc­tive given the mon­u­men­tal issues that must be addressed over the next 13 months.