House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have put all of us on notice: It is politics as usual until the November election, and probably after the election, too.
Not that we're at all surprised, just once again disappointed.
Boehner said that when Congress is asked to raise the debt ceiling again, Republicans will insist on spending cuts in conjunction with the increase, no matter who is president. If President Barack Obama is re-elected, we'd expect nothing less than more political rhetoric by Boehner when the subject of the borrowing limit is broached. But we wonder what Boehner's response will be if a Republican, say Mitt Romney, is elected president.
Pelosi responded to Boehner's hardline stance by saying "This is not a responsible, mature, sensible place for us to go." This statement of maturity comes from a politician who urged fellow lawmakers to hurry up and vote for the health care overhaul so they could see what was in the bill.
It's only the end of May, and already Congress seems content to write off the rest of this year, satisfied with accomplishing seemingly little or nothing.
We're never surprised when politicians spew such rhetoric, but we are always disappointed. And lately, we've been disappointed a lot.