It should come as no surprise that small town politics is, generally, a microcosm of the workings of our representatives on Capital Hill. Failure, to move an agenda, or to see and correct a potentially disastrous problem, is always "their fault" -- depending on which party you've declared allegiance to.
In North Jersey, bordering the Hudson River, Englewood Cliffs Mayor Joseph Parisi is blaming the Republican members of the Council. The Record quoted him as saying, "This is always a problem for municipalities because you can do quick fixes, but the quick fixes come back to bite you." To emphasize the point, the borough's auditor, Steve Wilcox, indicated that the deficit resulted from not having increased taxes for the previous two years.
Since the November elections, only one Republican remains on the Council in the Cliffs. Carrol McMorrow disputed Wilcox's statement, saying that taxes were raised in 2010, and questioned why he had no documentation for the borough's spending that created the deficit.
Sound at all familiar? It should. Just last week, Bloomberg Business Week reported yet another episode in the Federal Budget Deficit Saga. Let the fingerpointing begin:
“This report from the Congressional Budget Office serves as a harsh indictment of President Obama’s failed policies,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said in a statement. The Republican-controlled House has “fought to put the brakes on the president’s spending spree and continues to advance pro-growth solutions.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said Obama “called for a balanced approach to reducing the debt with both spending cuts and new revenue.” Conrad added, “Republicans must be willing to put revenue on the table and accept a tax code where everyone, including the wealthiest, pay their fair share.”
I'm pretty sure you have no one else to blame if you get into financial difficulty on a personal level. All of these elected officials have been entrusted with your money and my money. It's long past time that they stopped pointing fingers and found solutions to the problems.
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