Some Hopeful Bipartisan Talk From Washington The Day After

Now that last night's election results are in, it's time for politicians to get to work. In that regard, the year end fiscal cliff is rapidly approaching.

Since our politicians created the problem in the first place, they can take the necessary steps to avoid its potential drastic effects, too. Today there's evidence that they may just step up and do their jobs in a bipartisan manner. Now wouldn't that be a welcome change?

To make the deal work, Democrats will have to give ground on government gone wild spending reductions and entitlements reform, while Republicans will have to accept the idea of some higher taxes. Both will have to embrace tax reform.

It will be essential that they be willing to compromise, in other words, for the good of We the People as a whole. And to accomplish that, leaders of both parties will have to play the role of "public servants" instead of acting as crass and uncaring partisan juveniles hell bent on playing dangerous games with our nation's well being.

Because if we do in fact go over the approaching cliff, either at year end or after several rounds of can kicking which last through the better part of 2013, it will almost certainly result in a severe and prolonged recession beginning in 2013 and perhaps not ending until who knows when.

While going over the cliff is something we obviously can't afford to let happen here in the U.S., its occurrence would certainly wreak havoc elsewhere in the global economy as well, since we import lots of stuff from China, Europe and elsewhere. We're still the engine driving the rest of the world's economies.

So if we stop buying, they stop selling. And if they stop selling, they stop producing and buying what's needed for their production requirements, too. And if that takes place again anytime soon, the world's economies would almost certainly be in for extremely tough sledding.

So it's refreshing to hear some reasonable talk coming out of Washington --- finally. And while it's just talk at this point, at least the pols are saying the right things today.

Obama, GOP Talk Common Ground on Fiscal Cliff has the happy talk summation:

"President Barack Obama and the top Republican leaders in Congress immediately called for more of a bipartisan approach toward addressing the country’s economic challenges in the wake of Tuesday night’s election.

Whether the olive branches will survive more than a few days is yet to be determined, particularly as the White House and Congress begin tense negotiations in the coming days on how to deal with expiring tax cuts and mandatory spending reductions that begin in January. Democrats and Republicans have had staunchly different proposals about how to address the so-called “fiscal cliff,” and many businesses and households have worried that another political standoff could tip the economy into a recession.

But in the hours after the election, Mr. Obama, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R., Ohio) all said they wanted to reach common ground on core issues and work together, something they have had little success doing together in the past two years.

“You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours,” Mr. Obama told supporters Tuesday night. “And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together.”

The first two “challenges” he listed were “reducing our deficit” and “reforming our tax code.”

He did not specifically call for raising taxes on any particular group during his speech, an omission that could either be significant or insignificant depending on the twists and turns of the political debate in the coming days.

Mr. McConnell, who will likely remain minority leader in the Senate and wield considerable influence, said of Mr. Obama’s victory, “To the extent he wants to move to the political center, which is where the work gets done in a divided government, we’ll be there to meet him half way. That begins by proposing a way for both parties to work together in avoiding the ‘fiscal cliff’ without harming a weak and fragile economy, and when that is behind us work with us to reform the tax code and our broken entitlement system.”

Mr. Boehner plans to make a statement on the “fiscal cliff” Monday afternoon, and his office on Wednesday said he would call for “the need for both parties to find common ground and take steps together to help our economy grow and create jobs, which is critical to solving our debt.”"

SUMMING UP

Negotiating success requires conversation.

It also requires compromise.

And that's what politics is all about.

Hopefully, now that the election is over, our "public servants" will proceed quickly and forthrightly to serve the public interest.

If so, it's about time. And it's a most welcome development at that.

Maybe someday government bipartisanship in the cause of all of We the People could become a habit.

What a nice thought!

Thanks. Bob.