Wednesday, November 23, 2011

George Will and the Source of Divided Government

In last week's edition of ABC's "This Week", Conservative Pundit George Will remained calm in the wake of the Congressional Supercommittee's imminent (and now established) failure to cut $1.2 trillion dollars from the Congressional budget.

The two camps in government have come nowhere closer to resolving fundamental ideological differences. Democrats want revenue increases; Republicans want spending cuts.

We do not have a revenue problem in this country; Congress has a spending problem. Higher taxes are the last thing we need to impose in order to improve our nation's struggling economy.

This contest will carry over into the 2012 elections, in which the American voters will decide what they want -- the statist status quo that is bleeding this nation beyond insolvency; or fiscal discipline that cap spending, cut entitlements, and cull revenue from fewer appropriations as opposed to higher taxes.

Until then, we must accept that the United States government is working as it should. Local and state interests are sending leaders who advocate one of two measures, both of which symbolize the divided mind of the American People.

We want our entitlements, but we do not want to pay for them.

We want less government, but not from the sector from which we draw benefits.

We have a Hamiltonian penchant for service from Government, but we have the Jeffersonian disposition of wanting to discharge debts and resolve deficits.

One of the other will have to win out if the United States anticipates remaining solvent in the near future and heading off bankruptcy.

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