Our two-party system of government is, by its very nature, confrontational.

     One party wants to move in one direction and the other prefers a different course. Somewhere in the middle is compromise.

     In their respective pursuits, Republicans and Democrats have set the nation on course toward the so-called “fiscal cliff,” an onerous combination of spending cuts and tax increases that will impact every citizen after the first of the year. The cliff was set up as a way to encourage compromise on budget and other plans, but any deals in that regard have eluded lawmakers for several years now.

     The cliff-related legislation, coupled with the expiration of a 2010 Social Security tax cut, represents a complicated set of triggers that will see nearly every American – not just high-earners – paying more in taxes at the same time that spending cuts for defense and a variety of other domestic areas are implemented.

     Combine the individual impact of tax increases and spending cuts with our current general economic uncertainty, which has caused business owners to hold back on expansion or development plans, and the forecast is bleak.

     According to one estimate related to the tax cut expiration, a worker earning $50,000 a year will begin paying about $1,000 more in taxes, or $20 a week. Workers making less than that would also be hit in the wallet.

     Throughout the history of work, many individuals and families have lived week to week and paycheck to paycheck. In recent years as the economy worsened, this struggle has increased as many wage earners have cut expenses to the point there is little left to cut should their pay be further diminished.

     A lame-duck session of Congress has returned to Washington, and there has been much talk about the potential impending fiscal cliff doom and how to address it. Talk of compromise, however, still seems elusive while political posturing and distractions continue to rule the day.

     Rather that provide the leadership expected of a president, Barack Obama keeps stoking class warfare and seems more willing to pick a fight with individual senators over comments about the U.N. ambassador than to work on a fiscal cliff compromise. And details about the CIA sex scandal serve as nothing more than a titillating distraction from the needed work at hand.

     The ultimate solution to the fiscal cliff dilemma must include ingredients that someone will find distasteful. There are no easy answers and no one will be completely happy with the end result.

     Going over the fiscal cliff into the abyss of higher taxes, spending cuts and economic uncertainty is not an option.