This will not come as breaking news to anyone who knows anything about basic economics. Business leaders have warned that the agreement avoiding the fiscal cliff will hurt their sales and will not unlock investment or produce more hiring.
While the stock market has initially responded by heading up, the uncertainty for business over the effects of higher taxes, more debt, Obamacare and new regulations is keeping employers from employing, and, in fact, they are laying off people. New unemployment figures are due out today.
As usual, Congress has fixed nothing that needed fixing. The debt remains and grows. Entitlements have not been reformed. The tax code remains a mess. And the battle over the debt ceiling happens in less than two months.
Fixing the redistricting process would help. The way lines are drawn now, more than 90 percent of incumbents get re-elected. We need a system whereby if members don't fix problems, we can fire them. Until then, not much will change.
I'm Cal Thomas.
Publication date: January 3, 2012
