EDITORIAL: Dealing with the deficit

Posted 11/6/12

Whatever the outcome, it is a certainty that America will remain a divided nation, because there is too much antagonism between the two parties concerning how to resolve our budget difficulties and just what role the federal government should play …

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EDITORIAL: Dealing with the deficit

Posted

Rational discussions needed for America to move forward

On this Election Day, there is a great deal of uncertainty about which party will be in charge of our nation’s future for the next four years. Polling has shown it to be an extremely close race and, at best, the pollsters are making only educated guesses about the outcome.

Whatever the outcome, it is a certainty that America will remain a divided nation, because there is too much antagonism between the two parties concerning how to resolve our budget difficulties and just what role the federal government should play in the life of this nation.

As happens in every presidential election, the candidates this year have made extravagant promises and issued dire warnings about the outcome of the vote and what it will mean for we, the people, but in the end, reality always interferes. Promises become hard, even impossible, to keep.

One of the biggest factors in that reality this time is the political climate here in America. The divisions among Americans have hardened, and it has become nearly impossible to come to any sort of consensus about how to solve our national problems. Our political leaders have adopted unmoving positions on taxes, Medicare and Social Security, health care and other issues that are clearly untenable if our budget deficit is to be reduced. Compromise has become a dirty word and simply holding a rational discussion of our differences on such issues has become all but impossible.

Consequently, everything must be on the table as we approach the problem.

Our leaders must also realize that climbing out of our current hole can’t be achieved overnight. It will take time.

In short, it is time for everyone, especially political leaders of both parties, to lower our voices and abandon our self-serving principles and seriously begin to discuss our differences rationally. All of us, as well as our leaders, must be honest about our own relationship to the deficit rather than continuing to blame all the problems on the president, whoever he might be next January.

Simple patriotism demands that we do so, because failure to deal with the deficit means failure for the nation, and failure of the nation will not be good for any of us.

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