OVER THE CLIFF

AND...we're back on the edge of the cliff: As the house of representatives (Motto: "Afraid of tea and parties and some guy named Grover") passed the legislation sent to it by the Senate. 
Now on to the debt ceiling debate...or as we like to call it: "America held hostage by a bunch of republican congressmen."
We shall see. 

Fiscal Cliff update: Boehner can't control his caucus. He cannot get the votes to pass the senate bill. The Speaker's second in command- Majority leader Eric Cantor stabbed the speaker (and the country) in the back by announcing he will not support the bill. 
So over the cliff and down the river we go, courtesy of the house republicans. 

Good morning and happy new year. It's 2013. Just 364 more days until the end of the year. (sigh). 

That splashing sound you heard was the country going over the cliff in a barrel. 
That hissing sound you heard was all the air going out of the fragile economy. With the combination of your taxes going up and government spending going down- as much as 9 billion dollars a week will be taken out of the economy. 

They say they have a deal to fix it: The senate passed a bill late new years eve- the house votes on it next.  But even the so called fix just kicks the can down the road for most of the issues for a few months. As our late law school  property law professor used to say: one of the biggest lies is "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." 

The simple fact is that the government is broken. There is no leader among the entire house and congress willing to stand up and say "here's my idea to fix this...follow me." Instead, each vote is measured by each congressman and senator with the yard stick of how  the extremists (read tea party) in their district will view the vote and will it anger them enough to run a challenger in their primary?  Until five or ten brave souls who are true leaders get together and tell the extremists they no longer matter, this brinksmanship of bringing our country to the edge of defaults and economic disaster will continue every two or three months. 
So get used to it. 

As we reported yesterday, Justice Ben Overton -a real leader, passed away. It's no exaggeration to say that Justice Overton rescued the Florida Supreme Court and perhaps the judiciary in the state by bringing honesty and integrity to the court. Of course this occurred in 1974, when most of our reader's parents were knee high to a yet to be invented Starbucks Vente cup, so how relevant is all of this to you anyway?

Let's start our resolution list. Write them in the comments section and we'll fill the best in. We start with a simple one at number 10:

1________                         6________
2________                         7________
3________                         8________
4________                         9________
5________                       10 Eat less sugar. 

Remember: with all  new year's resolutions to try more cases and get tougher on crime rattling around in the otherwise despoiled heads of judges and prosecutors, January is the worst time to set a case for trial. Rumpole practice tip#4. 

We're smart enough to follow our own rules, so it will be a while before we see you in court for anything other than an arraignment or motion.