Am I a total seerer, or what?
In early December I had a brief Facebook conversation with a friend who bemoaned the political shenanigans of the fiscal cliff. I said not to sweat it, that the best thing to do was to go away and check back at the end of the year to find out what last-minute deal got done.
I said this because the dice were already cast.
The Repubs and Dems had to dance in a completely unproductive swirl for weeks because if either gave an inch before they absolutely had to the radical followers of their side would skewer them. This meant that once there was no more time they would throw a dart and make a deal happen, which was almost certain to be a short-term fix that would serve to give them more time to discuss the matter–which is pretty much what appears to have happened, though even I didn’t believe they would go so deep into the timeline as they did (as in, an hour past the deadline).
Politics is such a ridiculous game at its core, but obviously fascinating to watch. I just wish there was a party whose platform matched mine better. Both parties regulate too much, and regulate stupid things. Neither group can cut a program once it’s in place. The Repubs (a wing of them, anyway) are too exclusionary for my tastes, the Dems too willing to put people on the dole “for their own good.” But at the highest level, they are the same–all for big government, as long as it’s their guys pulling the strings.
They don’t agree on much, but that’s just because they are like siblings, wired to fight regardless of their positions.
Anyway.
We’ll see what the House does in a few hours, but the cliff seems to have been side-stepped.
For now.
What a lovely post to start the year with, eh?