Lawmakers don't seem to be listening to the complaints of citizens who are unhappy with ongoing inactivity on such major issues as taxes, spending cuts and budget deficits. Perhaps they'll listen to the latest projection from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
That office, in its annual summer report, said allowing tax cuts to expire and massive spending cuts to happen in 2013 would produce "economic conditions that will probably be considered a recession."
In other words, continuation of the current "do-nothing" approach to government in Washington, D.C., will put the United States into another recession next year. It's unacceptable, even in a presidential election year, to allow that to happen. Lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle should be embarrassed and shamed into making actual progress on those issues before it's too late.
But will they? Don't hold your breath. It is, after all, just a few months before the election, and neither Democrats nor Republicans appear willing to end the long-standing ideological fight over tax cuts, spending cuts and the budget deficit. They know that failing to act will harm this country, including boosting the unemployment rate to 9 percent according to the budget office, but politicians apparently have more important things to attend to, notably getting re-elected.
Perhaps if members of Congress put the country's needs ahead of their own for a change, they wouldn't have to wonder why their approval rate is so embarrassingly low. But will they do it?