Milestones
By Miles H. Barber

Did we learn anything from the bitter battle over America's bloated budget?

We learned that common sense is absent in Washington.

Even a fifth grader knows we can't borrow 40 cents for every dollar we spend and expect fiscal sanity.

However, Congress increased our debt limit by 2 trillion dollars so we could continue to do just that.

This increase is tied to an annual reduction in expenditures of a little more than $100 billion.

Of course the concern is the impact this will have on states and municipalities that have come to rely on generous government funding. Funding that is used for a wide variety of social services and capital projects.

The Democrats threaten that cuts will slow our economy even more.

The Republicans counter that tax increases on the wealthy will reduce job growth.

So the bottom line is Congress basically voted to continue business as usual, waiting until the next crisis to make the next fiscal decision.

As an interim appeasement the Senate and House will appoint a bi-partisan task force to work on a new compromise with a time frame of December this year.

Since we are about to enter another election period you can expect a replay of the last two months with more posturing, verbose blabber, and serious division.

What does this mean for our country? Political war!

At no period of time in recent memory has gridlock become more of a threat than the current climate in Washington.

We have three philosophical positions contending for power.

The far left, sees an America that is better served by big government, which makes more decisions for citizens who should become more dependent on government sponsored employment, social services and government funded programs.

On the far right side we have those members of Congress that feel government is a threat to civil liberties, is out of control with spending and makes far to many decisions that impact government growth and dependency.

Somewhere in the middle are the moderates who see government as a necessary mechanism to a well functioning democracy, tilt more toward a leaner government with a balance of power between maintaining a common defense and providing vital social programs.

Without boring you with the details, it is virtually impossible for these three positions to peacefully coexist.

This is where compromise becomes a critical component of reaching consensus.

The problem is that the extremes on both ends of the philosophical spectrum are so far apart they see compromise as defeat.

While you may have your own view of the direction America should be heading, you would have to ask yourself, do my Congressional representatives reflect what I want to see happen in America?

You realize this is not a question of which party you belong to or support. It is more about your philosophical position as a citizen.

You may not trust the Tea Party members, the Democrats or Republicans, and that is understandable. No one party has everything for everyone.

It is also apparent that no single party has all the answers.

What is quite clear, we are going to need to be much more careful in considering next year who we want to represent us at every level of government.

Miles H. Barber can be reached at Scweekly2011@yahoo.com