2013 begins with hope and promise just as 2012 did, but will there be a difference? For this writer 2012 began and ended poorly and was easy to say "goodbye" to it. Unfortunately, though, 2013 seems to be starting out the same way!
Politically, the year began with the Federal government playing "chicken" with the so-called Fiscal Cliff. News to no one, I suspect. With a "compromise" reached at the last second. This has become such a common occurrence, I suspect it is the new reality of Washington. It is not one that is a good thing for the country. By definition "Politics" is the "art of the possible" not of "making any action impossible". It seems that until faced with a crisis deadline Congress will people are publicly looking at an exploratory committee!
Does anyone recall when a fiscal year budget was passed, rather than resorting to a continuing resolution first? We haven't even sworn in President Obama for his second term yet, and already an exploratory committee has been formed for 2016! This has gone from the ridiculous to the totally insane. We can expect to hear the dreaded words "I approve this message" any day now!
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A bit of trivia: This year the swearing in ceremony will be on Sunday at 12 p.m. (January 20th) as required by the Constitution, but the Inauguration will be on Monday - does that mean the President has to take the oath twice with the one on the steps of the Capitol Building being the informal one since the Chief Justice already administered the oath the day before? And in that vein, if you can't have an inauguration on a Sunday, which is not a national holiday; how come you can on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, which is a national holiday?
If you heard the State of the State address by the Governor, the two state party chairs interviewed afterwards must have missed that line or were listening to different speeches, since you certainly didn't get the feeling that they planned on cooperation or even heard the same speech. Time will tell, maybe I am wrong - but I doubt it.
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Still, while I may sound like a cynic, I shall continue to pursue those issues that are particularly important to me and hope that I will do my part to push them forward at both the Federal and State level. And maybe a year from now, we can say 2013 beat the heck out of 2012!
