{ "href": "/post/2012/08/02/congress-isnt-gridlocked-its-just-totally-irresponsible/", "relId": "2012/08/02/congress-isnt-gridlocked-its-just-totally-irresponsible", "title": "Congress isn\u2019t gridlocked \u2014 it\u2019s just totally irresponsible", "author": "pmjones", "markup": "html", "tags": [ { "href": "/tag/collapse/", "relId": "collapse", "title": "Collapse", "author": null, "created": null, "updated": [], "markup": "markdown" }, { "href": "/tag/economics/", "relId": "economics", "title": "Economics", "author": null, "created": null, "updated": [], "markup": "markdown" }, { "href": "/tag/government/", "relId": "government", "title": "Government", "author": null, "created": null, "updated": [], "markup": "markdown" } ], "created": "2012-08-02 18:41:47 UTC", "updated": [ "2012-08-02 18:41:47 UTC" ], "html": "
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What we\u00e2\u0080\u0099re actually witnessing -- and have been for years now -- is not gridlock, but the abdication of responsibility by Congress and the president for performing the most basic responsibilities of government. Despite the fiscal crisis that Washington knows will occur if it fails to deal with unsustainable spending and debt, it hasn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t managed to produce a federal budget in more than three years.\u00c2\u00a0

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To their credit, House Republicans have drafted, voted on, and passed a budget, but they are busy now trying to worm their way out of the very spending cuts -- the sequestration deal -- they insisted on as a condition for raising the debt limit last summer.\u00c2\u00a0

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One of the most egregious failures of the president\u00e2\u0080\u0099s budget was that it, as in his previous budgets, offered no serious plan to stabilize the largest entitlement programs. Instead, the president and congressional Democrats lambasted Republicans for actually addressing the problem in their budget.\u00c2\u00a0

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The plain fact is that neither party is working honestly to tackle the nation\u00e2\u0080\u0099s fiscal issues. Why stick your neck out when it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s easier to just blame the other side?

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via Congress isn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t gridlocked -- it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s just totally irresponsible - The Hill - covering Congress, Politics, Political Campaigns and Capitol Hill | TheHill.com.

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