You've now undoubtedly heard that the House of Representatives has voted in favor of the Senate's version of the Fiscal Cliff bill (officially titled the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012). President Obama is expected to sign it soon. To see the pdf of the bill, go here:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2013/images/01/01/american.taxpayer.relief.act.pdf
So what do you think? Is this good for the country? Did one side win? Did one side lose? What about the process?
My opinion:
First, I want to address the process. This might sound odd to some, but in my opinion, the process is the biggest winner here... to some extent. Our bicameral legislature was established to do exactly what the Congress just did: Debate, delegate, argue, and move slowly towards a
compromise. While the Fiscal Cliff negotiation process was "oversensationalized" by the media, (albeit, a heavily-slanted media that used this opportunity to
push an agenda), it went precisely as our Forefathers envisioned. Our legislative body, the Congress, was designed to be slow. It was designed this way to ensure tyrannical, quick, dictator-like laws were difficult to enact. Our Forefathers believed that if laws were passed quickly, they would not be passed properly. If it was possible for a bill to become law in quick fashion, without debate (which is a representation of the people spread around this country), why not just have one man or woman, namely, a king or queen, simply implement laws? I
addressed this previously, and I do believe wholeheartedly in the concept of legislative compromise:
