American Gridlock

Change is supposed to be difficult. Major progress – like reforming a country’s education system or achieving universal health care – takes vision, patience and will.

But it’s not supposed to be impossible.

Especially not for the most economically prosperous, militarily powerful and politically advanced country in the world.

Still, here we are.

Nearly 15 months into the Obama presidency – with huge Democratic congressional majorities – we’re still waiting for health care reform. Our corrupt and broken banking system remains unaddressed. A climate bill? Please.

These are just a few of the big problems now confronting us. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a rapidly deteriorating education system, a fragmented immigration policy, the looming insolvency of Social Security, and the absence of a rational plan for energy independence.

Conservatives implore the president to slow down, that “America” doesn’t want big change. They throw sand in the gears of government. So, nothing happens at all.

It’s no wonder that a recent poll showed that 86% of Americans believe our system of government is broken. Time and again we have proven incapable of addressing major national concerns without the boot of acute crisis bearing down on our necks. Read More »

The Democrats’ Debt Trap

Politics runs on its own clock. Only 12 months ago, I was triumphantly predicting decades of Democratic dominance in Washington. Today, I worry about President Obama’s re-election prospects in 2012 and whether Democrats will retain their strong majorities in the House and Senate.

What happened?

The massive federal expenditures orchestrated to rescue the nation from economic collapse are now boomeranging politically. Republicans are using the $12 trillion national debt as a cudgel, beating Democrats over the head as the midterm elections approach.

Charlie Cook – ace predictor of congressional races – now says Democrats will probably lose 30 seats this November.

It’s not unusual for an incumbent president’s party to lose seats two years into the first term. Ronald Reagan lost 26 Republican seats in the 1982 midterms. In 1994, Bill Clinton lost more than 50 seats and Republicans won control of the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years.

Both Reagan and Clinton faced grinding recessions during their first years in office. But the economy recovered over the subsequent two years, just in time for both of them to be comfortably reelected – Reagan by 17 million votes and Clinton by 8 million.

So, President Obama may well see his own polling numbers – and re-election prospects – improve dramatically if the recession ends, the national job picture brightens and the country’s GDP continues to grow.

But what if it doesn’t? Read More »