STARKVILLE, Miss. —
Now that the Nov. 6 balloting is complete — although the squabbling over the balloting is nowhere near complete — where does the country go from here?
Regardless the outcome of the election, the United States faces a laundry list of serious problems. First and foremost, as exposed by the election, this is a sharply divided nation — one that is divided by disparate beliefs and values as it relates to the nature of government, by economic status and by perceptions of equality filtered through the prisms of race, gender, religion and morality.
The fact is that joblessness and an incredibly slow recovery from recession has impacted economic growth. The current economic “recovery” is the weakest since World War II, and the jobless rate is higher than when President Barack Obama took office.
The U.S. is borrowing more than $1 trillion annually with economic growth insufficient to keep pace. Over the long haul, the nation’s debt crisis looms large and threatens to plunge the nation into global economic instability.
There is no long term solution to the nation’s economic woes that does not follow a path through the nation’s entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. With 78 million Americans careening toward collecting those benefits, the White House and Congress face historic decisions that will carry significant political consequences.
Also waiting is the so-called “sequester” dictated by the debt ceiling deal which will require nearly $55 billion in defense spending cuts. From Mississippi’s shipyards to central Mississippi defense plants to north Mississippi missile defense technology plants, those cuts threaten an already delicate economy in the poorest state in the union — and those impact multiply across the nation.
Another $38 billion in federal spending cuts also loom for education, public health, immigration enforcement, and the broader federal judicial system as part of the debt ceiling deal. Those are but foothills along the fiscal roadway that leads to the vaunted “fiscal cliff.”
It’s not all spending cuts. The expiration of the Bush tax cuts is projected to raise federal revenue by $250 billion annually, but those tax hikes come at a time when small businesses and the taxpayers who own and operate them are struggling. The growing class warfare political tactic of calling on higher taxes for wealthy taxpayers remains a threat to the speed and intensity of the economic recovery.
And just as the federal government and the taxpayers adjust to the last debt ceiling deal, the need for another one will emerge in the not too distant future.
Couple those very real economic concerns with the foreign policy concerns of the Middle East, the economic concerns in the European Union, and the very real prospect of a global banking crisis and one wonders why anyone would pursue the job with the intensity that both Obama and Mitt Romney brought to the 2012 election fray.
The dynamics of current American politics — in which both the major parties are under increasing pressure from the more extreme wings of their parties to insist on ideological purity and to avoid any step toward compromise — leave little room for innovation in addressing most of these incredibly complex problems.
Yet one encouraging part of the Tuesday balloting was the “ground games” that both parties employed in trying to win the election for their respective parties. The fact that cynical, jaded voters — many of whom were mired in recovery from a massive storm – could be motivated to get out and vote offers a glimmer of hope for meaningful compromise and statesmanship as the “new” U.S. government reassembles and gets to work after this election.
But the clock is ticking for business as usual in Washington. Business as usual is a prescription for real economic misery for our country and a plethora of problems that will increase and multiply for lack of any serious attention. Democrats and Republicans alike deserve better.
Columns
Election is over: Now what?
- Columns
-
-
Hood’s ‘open carry’ ruling strikes important balances
Attorney General Jim Hood’s office issued an opinion this week that went a long way toward establishing some order and applying some common sense to what has become a contentious and confusing debate both for proponents and opponents of free exercise of the Second Amendment.
House Bill 2, which becomes law July 1, was authored and led to passage by state Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton. Gipson has told the press that he believed the legislation was necessary to clearly define what a concealed weapon is under the law and to distinguish between “concealed carry” and “open carry” rights. But many law enforcement officers charged with enforcing the state’s “concealed carry” law and other contradictory statutes, the bill created some confusion and Hood’s AG opinion brought some clarity to the ongoing debate. -
The Loss of Trust
Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust of the Obama administration that makes weighing the costs and benefits of the NSA program itself hard to assess. The belated recognition of this administration’s contempt for the truth, for the American people and for the Constitution of the United States, has been long overdue.
- Vocability Words can be both familiar and extremely confusing when taken from their usual context. Ask any wine enthusiast about legs, fat or bricks and they may assume you are speaking “Vinonese.” Ok — I made that word up; but the language of wine does indeed include legs, fat and brix which have entirely different meanings from what you might assume. Working with definitions from http://www.wineschool.com/vocabulary.html, try your basic knowledge of “Vinonese.”
- Vocability Words can set a tone for a situation, alter someone’s perception of an individual or group — in short, there is power in them. The Bible cautions, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue...” — Proverbs in 18:21, ASB. With that in mind, I will be focusing on words, some recently used and some obscure, to test the readers and build on what you already know. There will be theme weeks, for instance next week will focus on words involving wine — for no particular reason! So try your vocabulary skills with the following and see how you score. I’m always open to suggestions for material.
-
A hard rain is gonna fall...
By Kathryn Jean Lopez/Syndicated columnist
After disappearing during his term in office and bringing scandal to his family and state, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is going to Washington, having won election to Congress. And that’s far from the worst story reflecting the current character of our nation.
-
Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” -
Health care market needs oversight
By Gene Lyons/Syndicated columnist
Sometimes the best journalism explains what’s right under our noses. In Steven Brill’s exhaustive Time magazine cover article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” it’s the staggeringly expensive, grotesquely inefficient and inhumane way Americans pay for medical care.
-
VA’s appalling failures not recent
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
While recent national press attention to ongoing problems at Mississippi’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson is welcome and needed, the failures of the overall VA service apparatus in Mississippi are not recent problems.
In short, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery — Mississippi’s “Mr. Veteran” and author of the modern G.I. Bill that bears his name — must be spinning in his grave. There have been significant failures and poor service to veterans documented by state and local media since 2008. -
Dolley Madison politically savvy
By Cokie and Steven V. Roberts/Syndicated columnists
When Dolley Payne Madison became first lady in 1809, she instituted Wednesday evening gatherings at the White House where political rivals could meet and talk. They were called “squeezes” because so many people showed up and crowded the room. As Cokie wrote in her book “Ladies of Liberty": “All were welcome as long as they were appropriately dressed. And all went — skipping a Wednesday night might mean missing a vital piece of political information or being left out of a crucial deal.”
-
Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
Higher education in Mississippi has not been immune from national trends cited in a recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report which concludes that over the last five years, the global economic downturn and a “no new taxes” political climate have increasingly shifted the burden of higher education finance to students and parents at a time when enrollment is increasing and the percentage of state support is decreasing. - More Columns Headlines
-
Hood’s ‘open carry’ ruling strikes important balances
James Gandolfini Dies at Age 51
Fmr. TWA Flight 800 Investigators Want New Probe
Raw: Heat, Spurs Back on Court Ahead of Game 7
Dolce and Gabbana Convicted of Tax Evasion
Paris, Prince Depositions Used in Jackson Trial
Coiffed Cattle Get Their Close-up
In Berlin, Obama Channels Cold War Activism
Police at Patriots Tight End's Home for 2nd Day
Fed Suggests Bond Purchases Could Slow
AP: DOJ Broke Own Rules Seizing Phone Records
Raw: Baby White Rhino Debuts at Australian Zoo
Time Lapse: Rebuilding Bridge Post-collapse
Ohio Woman Accuses 3 of Holding Her Captive
Hunt for Ex-Teamster Boss Hoffa's Remains Ends
