Where Is America Headed In The New Year 2013?

When it is Christmas time, we all want to be “home for the holidays” and, if possible, stay right there for New Year’s Eve and the New Year with its bowl games and all the excitement of starting fresh, with a clean slate, a clear conscience, and some clear idea of where our country is headed.

Getting that clear idea of where the country is headed might just be harder than getting home for Christmas and predicting the winner of each and every bowl game!

Our two major parties have clearly defined two different approaches to the country’s future. With one decision already made for them, the one that takes us over “the fiscal cliff” so that we find ourselves hoping that the barrel we are in is padded well enough for us to survive the fall…

This fall is not unlike going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, with one exception: 314,000,000 of us are occupying the same barrel!

Predictably the stock markets around the world have taken a sharp drop, too. And, if we survive this first plunge, there is another one coming which is potentially larger: the debt ceiling!

American saw this next one once before, and not that long ago. Spending had been out of control. It still is, though “the fiscal cliff” may have put a real damper on the future spending, while raising tax revenues, and limiting the growth of the debt significantly.

Now the question is two-fold: (1) will the draconian cuts Congress put in place should there be no agreement on a clear path forward, remain in place, and (2) once we have been forced into such major cuts (presuming the cuts and tax increases do remain in place) will anyone agree that raising the debt ceiling is still necessary---and, if so, by how much?

We are witnessing a classic duel of ideas. Do we spend and keep spending with no clear plan for the future? Or, do we finally admit that the trillions, 16.2 of them, if allowed to continue to grow out of control, will mean we are in a very real crisis which involves much more than just worrying about whether or not we all pay our fair share of taxes, and whether the stock market bites people’s pockets and pension plans again?

The outcome, much more than the results of the recent election, will determine not only where our country is headed in 2013, but for many more years to come.

Right now anyone’s guess is as good as mine, and I’ve given up guessing. 2012 has already proven that nobody has a real crystal ball!

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Copyright 2012 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.