The third threatened government shutdown this year was narrowly averted. Congress' deficit "supercommittee" is apparently on a track to nowhere. And there has been contentious debate but little action on the proposals to help the jobless.Keep reading.
Can this government be fixed?
Americans are increasingly frustrated by the disconnect between what they say they want in their government, and what they see happening in Washington. A majority want compromise; they see polarization. They want economic and other problems addressed; they see gridlock and a series of perils-of-Pauline cliffhangers. By a record 4-1 ratio in a new Gallup Poll, they express dissatisfaction with the way the country is being governed.
"We are in this period of great anxiety because of economic uncertainty … and that has people worried about their future," says Dan Glickman, a former Democratic congressman and Cabinet secretary affiliated with the Bipartisan Policy Center. "What they need is confidence building, and what I don't think they sense from our government system is confidence building. Everything they see is division."
While President Obama and congressional leaders wrestle over immediate crises — a stopgap deal approved by the Senate late Monday has put off the latest budget showdown until Nov. 18 — a growing number of think tanks and advocacy groups with such names as No Labels, Americans Elect, Third Way and Ruck.us are trying to address underlying factors that fuel Washington's partisan stalemate.
The result, he says, has "got people either nervous as hell or disengaged."
The proposed "solutions" are gimmicks.
For the most part, the government will be fixed when the economy is fixed. The voters need a clear set of alternatives and they need to put a solid majority in power to get things done. Folks thought that was Barack Obama (and the Democrat-Socialist Party), but now even the media elites are saying he "wasn't ready" for the office. Well, duh. Let's give this guy the boot in 2012 and get somebody in there who has a clue, someone who'll fix things --- a conservative who'll fix things. Democrats just make things worse.
