Fiscal cliff divers of D.C.

It’s hard to comprehend how frustrating the so-called “fiscal cliff”  non-negotiations in Washington must be for millions of Americans who expect the matter to actually be addressed.

That’s exactly what’s NOT happening, as expressed so eloquently by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid when asked to respond to fiscal-cliff legislation that House Republicans were expected to pass late Thursday.

“We are not going to do anything,” Reid said of the Democrat-controlled Senate. “We are not taking up anything they are working on over there.”

Of course, the intent is to shift blame to House Republicans for passing legislation that is considered an unacceptable “non-starter” in the Senate, leaving Americans to the mercy of tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of the year.

This shoulder-shrugging response is mind-boggling even by D.C. standards. What part of “going over the cliff” doesn’t Reid understand? Republicans haven’t been much better, but at least they went along with tax hikes for those making $1 million or more, despite some virulent opposition within their ranks.

As a matter of principle, much of the Republican base rejects the idea of raising taxes on anybody to raise just enough money to run the federal government for a few days, when the real problem is federal spending.

But it doesn’t seem like anyone is interested in getting to the bottom of the real problems. Rather, Washington is engaged in a massive blame game, designed to foist responsibility for tax hikes on the other party without addressing any of the issues.

Well, there is one thing that is being accomplished for certain — Washington is fueling very real uncertainty among taxpayers, investors, business owners and credit experts who are monitoring the country’s fiscal situation closely.

And that brings us to the biggest problem of all: No matter what happens before January 1, the country is still facing a huge crisis going forward.

The real fiscal cliff is the country’s $16 trillion national debt, and ongoing annual trillion-dollar budget deficits adding to that debt, with Washington completely paralyzed in its ability to squarely deal with the problem.

One would think there would be a very serious effort among our elected officials to correct course when the value of the American dollar is on a path to the Mexican peso, but sadly, we are seeing that is not the case.