NEW YORK – After a hard-fought election campaign, costing well in excess of $2 billion, it seems to many observers that not much has changed in American politics: Barack Obama is still President, the Republicans still control the House of Representatives, and the Democrats still have a majority in the Senate. With America facing a “fiscal cliff” – automatic tax increases and spending cuts at the start of 2013 that will most likely drive the economy into recession unless bipartisan agreement on an alternative fiscal path is reached – could there be anything worse than continued political gridlock?
纽约—在激烈的选战后——总共花费了20多亿美元——许多观察者认为美国政治并没有因此改变多少：奥巴马仍旧是总统，共和党仍旧控制着众议院，民主党仍旧占据着参议员多数。美国面临着“财政悬崖”，即从2013年开始自动增税减支，这极有可能将经济拖入衰退，除非两党就替代性财政方案达成一致，从这个角度看，还有什么比政治僵局持续更糟糕的吗？