'Tis the season, and it's hard keeping up with blog posting and doing all the holiday stuff - the holiday party circuit, shopping til dropping, decorating the house, and irritating the Muslim neighbors with the electrified celebration of baby Jesus and all.  Thus, I will be brief:

So I get it, and agree with the economic imperatives to extend the famed Bush era tax cuts.  As I've said before, the Great Depression was not caused by the crash of '29 - that heralded in a Great Recession.  What did us in, many economists say, was the raising of taxes and tariffs after the crash.  Ok - important safety tip for Congress - don't raise taxes or get into trade wars with China while we are in a major recession or we might wind up in another great depression.  Got it. 

Here's what I don't get - where are the offsetting budget cuts to fill the gap these extended tax reductions make?  Supposedly extending the current tax rates another 24 months will add another trillion dollars to our debt, and Congress has made no move that I have read about to plug that hole. 

Now I have read that Republicans want a 5% net budget reduction for the next federal budget cycle, but a measly 5%?  Come on!  That's the best they can do? The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, suggested ways to trim 300 billion from the budget without a great deal of fuss and only a relative few sacred cows slain.  Now at least that's a good start.

The real economic emergency here is the national debt.  If economists say you can't balance federal budgets by  sucking more money out of weary taxpayers without doing even greater damage, then that means the only other alternative is to shrink government and shrink it big-time - to the tune of a trillion dollars at least.

Many Americans, including myself, want to see aggressive moves to get the federal government to act with fiscal responsibility.  Republicans tried to deliver 50% of the package - blocking the tax increases set to take effect at the end of the year.  Great - but they haven't done diddly-squat to address the staggering level of deficit spending.

Whether it's one shoe dropping or one handed clapping - this is bad.  Are the Republicans already poised to blow one of the biggest opportunities in American political history?  And if they do - then what?

I fear for the United States.