THREE DAYS AFTER THE ELECTION TURNING THE FOCUS TOWARD THE FISCAL CLIFF............

With the back and forth of politics and partisan divide of Election 2012 behind us, with President Onama re-elected, Republicans retaining the House of Representatives, and Democrats making gains in the U.S, Senate, the National Government now has to turn its immediate attention to averting the Fiscal Cliff that looms as of midnight December 31st.  President Obama addressed the matter less than two hours ago in an address from the East Room in which he underscored the need to meet the crisis by garnering bipartisanship support for a combination of spending cuts and new revenues, with the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts on upper income Americans as a part of the package.  Speaker of the House John Boehner has also been addressing the need for the Congress and the White House to come up with a resolution to the looming Fiscal Cliff / Sequestration at the end of the calendar year, insisting revenues can be on the table that are created by closing od certain tax loopholes, not an increase in taxes.  Boehner is describing himself as the most reasonable and responsible person in Washington to work with, yet still has to balance his willingness to negotiate with the President against maintaining the support of the Tea Party conservatives in his House Republican majority, who hold the votes to control his tenure as Speaker.  Arriving at an acceptable compromise that a majority of House Republicans and Senate Democrats can support, along with the endorsement of President Obama, and no attempt at a filibuster requiring 60 votes for passage in the U.S. Senate, will now become indispensable components of legislating and signing into law, a solution to this  harrowing challenge to productive governance and leadership in  post Election 2012 America............Fr.  Troy