A funny thing occurred to me on the way to the Fiscal Cliff: Does the business community still own, or even lease the Republican Party, ‘the party of business’, or has the party gone off on its own crazy trajectory, leaving business as well as the rest of us behind? Are the establishment Republicans in Congress more afraid of the Tea Party constituency than beholden to their K Street ventriloquists?
Much as the business community would like to denude government at all levels of any control over its predilections, even the buccaneers of free enterprise who love to compensate themselves for risk-taking while avoiding risk where ever possible must realize that the current game of chicken in progress in Washington carries far more risk than their constitutions can generally tolerate. Yet there is little observable evidence in the low-priced seats, where the huddled masses such as myself watch these games play out, that business is trying in any meaningful way to influence the outcome. Granted, much of this is usually done behind the scenes.
So the question becomes: is the business community still AWOL, as it has been for most of the past two years, or has the business elite become as lazy as the kamikaze Tea Party is crazy?
Place your bets, Ladies and Gentlemen, and watch out for flying debris in the low price seats.
Onward
20121225
