Could 'gridlock' be good for America?

With the GOP in control of the House and Democrats in charge of the Senate, a partisan stalemate is all but inevitable. Could there be an upside?

John Boehner is poised to be the next Speaker of the House in which the Republican majority will be the largest since 1928.
(Image credit: Getty)

"Welcome to gridlocked America," writes Ezra Klein at The Washington Post. While the GOP has won a landslide victory in the House of Representatives, the Senate is still under Democrat control — with Harry Reid hanging on as majority leader. All of that means that it's going to be very difficult for any legislation to make it onto the U.S. books for the next two years, says Klein. "From the perspective of actually getting anything done in the next two years, there was perhaps no worse outcome." But is that necessarily a bad thing? The pundits weigh in:

Not doing much could be the best recipe: Gridlock "may not matter," says The Associated Press. In fact, it "may not be such a bad policy for the economy." Economists agree that "none of the ideas proposed in the campaign — by either party — would make a big dent" in unemployment figures or jolt consumer confidence. If the economy is left to recover on its own — without unnecessary government spending — it might happen more quickly.

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