In the past decade we have witnessed increasing inability of our political system to address the challenges facing our nation. The political dysfunction has led to increasing public distrust, with tea party and OWS activism. The political debate in Washington has become partisan, hyper- charged, fueled by lots of money, media obsession with adversarial dialogue, and sport like coverage. Opinion and half truths and projections based on questionable assumptions. As the US congress and the president continue with their battle over the budget, deficit, debt ceiling, sequestration, the ideological, special interests and hardened personal positions rather than a rational approach to addressing our challenges threaten our future.

The fear mongering of long term financial ruin amplified through the echo chambers of the media, have eroded confidence in our financial system and our politicians. To the outsider the political debate in Washington has become partisan, hyper- charged, fueled by lots of money, media obsession with adversarial dialogue, and sport like coverage. Conflict is much more interesting than the hard work that is needed to find solutions and the political will to implement them.