Today, the Federal Deficit Commission held their vote (originally scheduled for Wednesday) to determine whether a formal proposal would be released for Congress' consideration. As many predicted, the commission failed to garner the 14 votes required for this to occur, out of the 18 member panel. There were 11 votes for the proposal, more than what many predicted the vote would generate. This is why some are arguing that we may see action from our nations leaders, yet others feel this is the reason Washington was looking for to go back to business as usual. A member of the panel, Andrew Stern, was quoted as saying "We have changed the issue from whether there even should be a fiscal plan for this country, to what is the best fiscal plan for this country."
The fact that it has taken this long and this much debate for someone to realize our country needs a fiscal plan is precisely why it is easy to believe our leaders will keep playing the political games- "kick the can" if you will, as long as they have the room to do so. The goal of the game- kick the issue down the road so we don't have to deal with it now. The good news- the terrain is all uphill from here- the longer we chose to kick the can, the harder it will become to continue doing so. Hopefully this will spur our leaders into acting to face these challenges sooner rather than later.
