Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb: Walker's survival could foreshadow battles in Congress

Pignanelli: For decades, the academic intelligentsia have whined and moaned about the decline of American culture, the dumbing down of entertainment, our short attention span, blah, blah, blah. If this assessment is true, then most Americans will not care or remember in 2013 what was said in 2012. In reality, Americans are levelheaded moderates who will forget election year shenanigans and coalesce around a leader with a plan.

Top financial experts say the United States is headed for a "fiscal cliff" that could plunge the country into recession or depression if Congress and the president don't soon take action on expiring tax cuts and pending draconian military and domestic budget cuts. Will Congress compromise to avert a crisis, or will we go over the edge?

Pignanelli: "For Congress … party disputes and personal quarrels are the great business of the day, whilst the momentous concerns of … a great and accumulated debt; ruined finances, depreciated money and want of credit are but secondary considerations and postponed from day to day, week to week …" Such was George Washington's assessment of the Continental Congress in 1778. Our federal legislators have taken critical matters to the edge for more htan 236 years, and then find a way to pull back. Readers should expect a repeat performance.

Webb: Brace yourself for fiery rhetoric, grand and bloody battles, and death-defying brinkmanship. And what will these great profiles in courage produce? Congress, with a whimper, will kick the can down the road.

Republican LaVarr Webb is a political consultant and lobbyist. Previously he was policy deputy to Gov. Mike Leavitt and Deseret News managing editor. Email: lwebb@exoro.com. Democrat Frank Pignanelli is a Salt Lake attorney, lobbyist and political adviser. Pignanelli served 10 years in the Utah House of Representatives, six years as minority leader. His spouse, D'Arcy Dixon Pignanelli, is a state tax commissioner. Email: frankp@xmission.com.