Total Length: 773 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)
Total Sources: 3
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This means that Congressional officials and the White House are reluctant to make the necessary adjustments (in order to address these issues). Instead, they have been utilizing various gimmicks to demonstrate how they are dealing with the problem. During the course of their reelection campaign, they can show how they helped to tackle the federal government's fiscal challenges and increased the number of projects / funding for various programs. It is at this point that they are improving their chances of being reelected. (Kakutani, 2012)
Are they really political solutions in disguise or creating more problems than solutions?
As a result, these actions are creating more problems in the future. Evidence of this can be seen with observations from Greenberg (2012) who said, "Congress remains deeply divided about how to deal with the fiscal cliff's combination of automatic government spending reductions and expiring tax cuts, amounting to nearly 5% of GDP, which are set to take effect January 1. The uncertainties raised by this approaching deadline are negatively impacting private sector sentiment and economic activity. Failure to act in a thoughtful way could have recessionary results, including another devastating blow to employment." This is showing how any kind of spending cuts and tax increases will have a negative impact on the economy over the short-term. It is at this point that there could be a slowdown during this period. (Greenberg, 2012)
When this happens, the voters will become upset about how Washington made the underlying situation worse (leading to a change in political leadership). To avoid these kinds of issues, they have been using different ploys to maintain these high levels. This is problematic, as the inability to deal with the hard choices is making the underlying situation worse over the long-term. (Greenberg, 2012)
Conclusion
Clearly, the reason why politicians are unable to make the tough choices is based upon the fears of a backlash from constituents. To prevent this, they have been supporting different ruses to make it look like they are dealing with the problem. Yet, nothing changes over the long-term. This makes the underlying fiscal situation even worse, despite efforts to tackle these challenges.
References
US National Debt Statistics. (2012). Statistic Brain. Retrieved from: http://www.statisticbrain.com/us-national-debt/
Greenberg, E. (2012). Political Leadership. Biz Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/guest-comment/2012/10/political-leadership-needed-to-avoid.html?page=all….....