Listen Up Washington, We've Been There

With each passing day our nation moves closer to having too little money in the treasury to pay our bills. Economists and business leaders warn of the impending irreparable damage to the dollar, to credit markets, household finances and the good faith and credit of the world's largest economy, but there is seemingly little awareness that much of the damage has already been done. Around the world, the nation seen only a few years ago as possessing remarkable capabilities relative to those of all other nations is now viewed as a dysfunctional society.

What went wrong?

I think the best answer is that reasonable people can have two very different interpretations of the "message" sent by the voters in the 2010 congressional elections.

One is that the American people have had it with big government, Washington is out of touch and citizens want to keep more of their tax dollars in their own wallets even if that means massive cuts in federal programs. In the last elections, the Republican Party certainly campaigned on that platform. No one should be surprised that they are pushing it as far as they can.

Read more here. (Scott Lilly's piece is the fourth one down the page.)

This article was originally published in CNN.