Congress

When Congress nearly failed to continue funding the government recently, one of the provisions in the spending bill that they couldn't agree on was an obscure bit of legislation related to the almost 50-year-old embargo of Cuba.

The provision -- which was eventually dropped -- would have reinstated a Bush administration policy that restricted Cuban Americans to visiting family in Cuba only once every three years, and then only to immediate family and with no humanitarian exceptions -- even for deathbed and funeral visits.

Among Republican presidential candidates, it's been demagoguery as usual. Why have a substantive debate when you can exchange inflammatory sound bites instead, especially on immigration?

But something surprising happened last week far from the campaign trail — on Capitol Hill, of all places. Just when we thought Congress would never act to address the nation's broken immigration system, members of the House made a critical breakthrough, voting overwhelmingly to approve a fix that will make American companies more competitive and the immigration system fairer and more welcoming.

Official Washington is now in the grip of an unprecedented bipartisan consensus. For all their other differences, leaders of both parties agree that Medicare, the nation’s primary means of providing health insurance for the elderly, is unsustainable and must be cut.

The United States of America was forged in resistance to collective reprisals—the punishment of many for the acts of few. In 1774, following the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passed a series of laws—including the mandated closure of the port of Boston—meant to penalize the people of Massachusetts. These abuses of power, labeled the "Intolerable Acts," catalyzed the American Revolution by making plain the oppression of the British crown.

Paul Misener, the vice president for global public policy at Amazon.com, appeared before members of Congress Wednesday to urge it to pass a proposed bill that would require online retailers — including Amazon itself — to collect state sales tax on the goods they sell through their websites.

“Congress should help address the states’ budget shortfalls without spending federal funds, by authorizing the states to require collection of the billions of revenue dollars already owed,” Misener said.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is the Republican chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and when it comes to matters Israeli-Palestinian she tends not to mince her words. Here is but one choice example: "It's time for us to kick the PLO out of the U.S. once and for all, and move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, where it belongs."

Six months ago, 42-year-old Michelle thought her life was finally turning around. She had conquered her addiction and been sober for four years. She was paying off old college debt. Her daughter and grandson were staying with her and, despite battling dyslexia, she had been on her job as an administrative assistant for three years, a job she just knew would help her get to the next level of her career.

"The job was starting to open up doors for me," said the District of Columbia resident. "I felt like it was an opportunity to turn my life around. I was feeling really positive."

Over the next 14 months, Barack Obama may well save his presidency. But he didn't begin that effort tonight. Obama outlined a jobs bill. It may be a good one. What he didn't outline was a story that connects that jobs bill to the economic crisis we've been facing for almost three years.

Obama laid out a solution, but he didn't define the problem: He didn't talk about the causes of the economic crisis, and the reason it has lasted so long. He also didn't talk much about his past efforts at stimulating the economy.

Democrats and Republicans alike are failing to convince the American people that they have the answer to their country's problems. Underneath, however, lies a deeper intellectual confusion. The two most plausible visions developed by the US centre-left and centre-right – the "knowledge economy" and the "ownership society" – lie in tatters, leaving a void in America's discussion of its economic future.

Picture a negotiation with your boss that goes something like this:

You walk in with dynamite strapped to your body and demand a raise.

Nope, he says, no raise -- that's off the table.

Fine, you say, then I am not going to do any work.

I can take that, he says, as long as it goes hand in hand with no benefits for you.

All righty then, you counter, but I'll be stealing office supplies.

Fine. Fine. You shake and you have a deal.

That's how the debt-ceiling deal feels to me.