ABC’s Jonathan Karl Asks Senators: ‘Aren’t You A Little Embarrassed’ By The Fiscal Cliff Standstill?

On Sunday’s This Week, Jonathan Karl sat down with Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to discuss the only political matter we could be discussing on December 30: the fiscal cliff. Underlining that we’ve known this day would come for two years, Karl asked the lawmakers if they don’t feel a bit embarrassed.

Karl called for a look at the bigger picture. “We’ve known for two years that these tax cuts would be expiring the day after tomorrow or at the end of the day tomorrow,” he said. “We’ve known that these automatic cuts, the so-called sequester, this was going to be happening for more than a year.”

“Aren’t you a little embarrassed as leaders in the Congress that it has gotten to this point, that tomorrow is New Year’s Eve… the day it all expires, and you still don’t have an agreement?”

“It is embarrassing, but almost every disagreement we have had is not because of the Senate, where we’ve had lots of — you know, we’ve come to agreement on many things,” Schumer said. The 50 “hard-right people” in the House are the ones who “say compromise is a dirty word.”

Next year, when Speaker John Boehner is re-elected and doesn’t have to worry about keeping his position, Schumer said, “I am hopeful” that the two sides can work together.

Washington D.C., the land of hope in the ever-approaching idealistic future.

Watch below, via ABC:

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