Rationality creates certainty and from the interview with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, certainty is what the world economy is relieved to see from a U.S. Congress that acted rationally when it created a bi-partisan budget deal.
As the world's richest country (the economic leader), the United States has to eliminate fear, as Ms. Lagarde put it even though as Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) noted Congress agreed to raise spending and raise taxes in this budget deal. If you're a conservative that sounds bad, but remember that the budget deal has net deficit reduction. Also, Congress working together along with the Fed buying less and less debt are indicators, as Ms. Lagarde noted leads to predictions of a stronger 2014 economically because it will lead to corporations investing and hiring more. In the United States, the last economic quarter showed a 4.1% growth and unemployment is at a 5-year low at 7% (still not good enough).
Anecdotally, there is Senator Jim Imhofe (R-OK) who recently, tragically lost a son in a plane crash. This column rarely agrees with Mr. Imhofe's policy positions, but he has our sincerely condolences. In the interview, Mr. Imhofe said that he might get in trouble for saying so, but admitted that more of his Democratic colleagues reached out to him than did Republicans. A sad byproduct from a sad story is that this is 'surprising.' But what Mr. Imhofe concluded was that listening to his colleagues on the other side of the aisle and trying to work together is a good thing; this coming from one of the most partisan politicians in the Senate.
It all sounds like good news with the economic indicators noted above along with a Stock Market that is closing at record levels, but these indicators are not applying to the majority of Americans or citizens of the world for that matter because the income inequality gap is continually widening. It's a topic that United States politicians simply will not touch. Republicans believe for the most part that it doesn't exist or is simply luck-of-the-draw and Democrats hate being accused of class warfare and don't have enough political muscle, which limits their desire to give more support to low-income families through raising taxes.
The United States isn't close to it, but there is a breaking point where the fabric of society is at stake as Ms. Lagarde said. You see already happening now in many countries where civil society is breaking down because of lack of economic opportunity and furthermore a fundamental lack of hope that it will get better.
Where Americans keenly have a lack of hope is in the confidence that the United States can positively move the country ahead in a competent and trustworthy manner. When we say 'competent,' think healthcare, and for 'trustworthy,' there's the NSA of course. Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the Administration has no choice but to get it right, but really the whole United States government has no choice to get it right, and that means that no matter how many changes need to be made to get it right, it simply has to happen. As Senator Coburn stated, the government can not run one sixth of the economy (approximately 17 percent). Fine, but it is the government's job to lower that percentage. There was lots of talk of other countries' healthcare costs comparatively to the United States, and the reason that they are considerably lower is because they are government-run, single payer systems.
That's not what Americans want, unless you're 65 or older and on Medicare. Without single payer, you keep the insurance companies (the private sector) profit in place, but to do that you have to create a mandate to get everyone insured while keeping those companies viable. As Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rightly noted, the individual mandate is tied to accepting people with preexisting conditions in as much as you can not have one without the other. So fixes are needed, or a better option, which Republicans haven't come up with. And given the lack of a viable alternative Republicans, like Anna Navarro, can not complain that an aspect of the healthcare act doesn't work when they don't want the entire thing in the first place.
And as for the NSA, that is just one big ball of ugly. Just consider what Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said about the agency that collects all of our private data and conversations that a subcontractor stole all of their secrets, the extent of which they don't even know. David Gregory noted that the Constitution prohibits the government from being put in a position of abuse. This is clear where the NSA sits, despite Congressman Peter King saying that no abuse by the NSA has been found.
Clearly, no one is looking.
Round Table: New York Times columnist David Brooks, Washington Post columnist E.J.
Dionne, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Republican
strategist Ana Navarro
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