Before you abandon the tradition of re-watching Miracle on 34^th Street, (that would be the delightful 1947 version, not the shameful 1994 remake), as your feel good holiday ‘go to’, for, say, the overly reported modern miracle of last week’s Congressional bipartisan budget bill, take a mo’, nibble a candy cane, savor some figgy pudding.  This must be a famous quote by somebody, but if it’s not, please imagine it preceding my name in Bartlett’s…”Pretending to accomplish something is not the same as actually accomplishing it.”  We are so deep into an era of make-believe, where there is much more concern and discussion about the fictional characters on Homeland and Duck Dynasty, (what?…he’s real?), than the pressing issues of our time, that a bogus piece of legislation is able to garner support simply because it sprang from some kum-bah-ya moment, from both sides of the Congressional abyss, (aka aisle).  This bill helps no one who needs help.  It moves us backward from our responsibility to our diminishing middle class, bolsters our bloated military, ignores empirical data regarding our economic future and creates an ideological divide among our most radical factions, insuring that a dysfunctional gaggle of nitwits, (The US Congress), will be leading us far into the future.  Just pull on its beard if you don’t believe me.

Not that a moment of pure, unadulterated honesty will make anything better, but the only truly bipartisan, unanimously agreed to piece of business of the 113^th Congress…Christmas break.