Mishnah: 'Public Funds Are Collected by Two and Distributed by Three'

By Julie Schonfeld

Originally posted in The Washington Post

In recent weeks while visiting Latin America, I found myself reading about the “fiscal cliff.” I arrived in a country where people were taking to the streets to demand their government confront, yet again, an inflation rate they experienced as many times the government’s published number. Far from home, I heard rhetoric about the irreconcilable divisions between parties and points of view in the United States with a deep skepticism. We have much more in common than we care sometimes to admit. Americans live with a level of stability and transparency that few enjoy. We are ill-served by rhetoric of division that squanders the energies we need in order to do what America has always done at its best – to provide more opportunity for more people to have a better life and the dignity to choose it... [read more]