USA TODAY Editorial: …In 2012, it repeated its abdication of responsibility by failing to find a long-term deficit fix. The budget deal passed Tuesday, as necessary as it might have been, barely qualified as a stop-gap measure. It did not address spending, or raise the debt limit. And it only pushed back the next “fiscal cliff” deadline by a couple of months…
The dysfunctionality of Congress results primarily from one simple fact: Too many lawmakers — particularly those in the House of Representatives — no longer worry about general elections, and therefore the national good. They are only concerned that well-funded primary opponents will challenge them for not being ideologically pure enough,
That is because most state legislatures draw congressional districts lines to guarantee success for one party or the other. Only a few dozen of the 435 House seats are up for grabs in a typical November. It is also because of the growing power of purity-enforcement groups and wealthy individuals who think nothing of dropping millions on television advertisements attacking an incumbent for being too centrist… (more)
