Do you have faith ‘they’ll do the right thing?’
Published 11:00 pm Tuesday, December 11, 2012
“I have no faith at all they’ll do the right thing.”
So said a New Hampshire business owner in a national wire story about voters’ growing frustration as the fiscal cliff looms for America.
But those words could have just easily been spoken at Byrd’s Drugs in downtown Troy, or around a McDonald’s table over coffee in thousands of towns across America.
Voters are, to put it mildly, fed up. And in places like Pike County, or New Hampshire, the growing sense of futility is hard to ignore. Many voters feel disenfranchised after the presidential election. Wounds are still fresh, and frustrations simply mount as the prospect of a fiscal cliff will wipe-out existing tax cuts, slash our military and defense spending and do next-to-nothing to curtail out-of-control government spending looms at the end of the calendar year. A resolution, it seems will fall prey to politics, and middle-class America will suffer.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., has been an outspoken critic of the process, challenging President Barack Obama to bring the negotiations out into the public. But Sessions’ call has been for naught. Even this week, President Obama continued his behind-closed-doors negotiations, fueling Americans’ sense of disenfranchisement and frustration.
And on Monday, U.S. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., who pledged this week to work through the Christmas holiday, if necessary, to help resolve the issue.
Both are making noble efforts to bring the voices and concerns of their electorate to the table, but many Alabamians worry that the efforts are for naught.
It seems, once again, the fate of the country and its taxpayers will be decided by a precious few political power players in Washington, D.C.
And, as that New Hampshire businessman said, millions of everyday Americans have “no faith they’ll do the right thing.”