In the past few weeks, the news has constantly consoled the American public that Congress saved us from the fiscal cliff after their vote just before the start of the New Year.

The fiscal cliff, a term used to coin the time when certain tax cuts from the Bush administration will expire and, therefore, increase taxes on each citizen, and how it should be handled was debated for weeks before it passed in both the House and the Senate the night of January 1, 2013. What the American public should know is that there is a rocky road ahead of us; our financial and employment woes have not been saved with the passing of the American Taxpayer Relief Act.

For the past couple of years, Congress-Republicans and Democrats-have failed to face the problems head on and instead, kick the can further down the road. The American Taxpayer Relief Act is, sadly, another example of our Senators and Representatives failure to fulfill the responsibility we gave them by electing them.

According to Kevin Glass, the Managing Editor of Townhall Magazine, by not choosing to address the problems we are facing and by quickly passing this bill, America will be worse off in the future than if Congress had decided not to act. By not choosing to address the problems we are facing and by quickly passing this bill, America will be worse often years ago than we would be if Congress had not chosen to act, according to Kevin Glass, the managing editor of Townhall Magazine.

Even the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office conceded that “although we expect that the legislation just enacted by the Congress will lead to higher output and income in 2013 we also expect that it will lead to lower output and income later in the decade than would have occurred under prior law.”

The Washington Post even explained that although the legislation attempted to lower taxes on our citizens, it will “result in the largest increase in taxes in a half century.”

The passing of the bill will also have a negative impact on the working sector, specifically on those that are unemployed.

According to Donald Lambro, chief political correspondent for the Washington Times, the passing of the bill could result “in the loss of 500,000 to a million jobs this year, pushing the jobless rate up by at least 0.4 percentage points, if not more.”

The passing of the fiscal cliff bill was definitely a compromise of values on the Democratic and Republican ideology. Democrats wanted all the tax cuts to be restored, except for wealthier Americans, while Republicans wanted to have the tax cuts to continue for all Americans, and argued the way to face the issue is to stop spending. Due to these compromising ideas, there was no clear vision for our nation and our economy; it was merely a fight as to which side could be determined the “winner” of the compromise.

Due to the lack of focus, Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post explains that the under no circumstances can “the deal to avert the ‘fiscal cliff’ be considered an economic success.”

What America needs to see is progress; we don’t care about who the winners and losers are. All we want is for us to emerge out of these economic woes and restore our economic power. Hopefully, Congress will begin to see our vision, and begin to act as Americans, not as two political parties.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Parkway School District.