Blame Supercommittee’s Failure on the Income Gap: Peter Orszag

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The supercommittee’s failure toreach a substantial agreement this week is disappointingbut unsurprising. The old model of politics, in whichbipartisan agreement was the key to success, simply doesn’twork anymore. In the new model, there is almost no overlapin views across party lines, and government functionrequires either domination by one party (as was the casefor much of President Barack Obama’s first two years inoffice) or more automatic decision-making (as I havesuggested elsewhere).

What’s causing today’s hyper-polarization? Althoughpolitical scientists still debate the issue, a growing bodyof evidence suggests that, as economists such as PaulKrugman and Ed Glaeser have argued, increases in incomeinequality may play a significant role.