It’s almost like we’ve heard this story before. The seasons are changing in Washington DC, but there’s one thing that seems to never change — the willingness of Washington to kick the can down the road.

Personally, it reminds us of this:

It’s the same old song and dance, with the government pretending to be on the “brink of a shutdown” unless A, B, and C occurs, creating another tiring winter of showboating and political wrangling to gin up drama heading into the election season.

Take, for example,  the ongoing fight on extending the payroll tax credit and unemployment benefits, which run out on December 31st.  Both of which are like using a Band-Aid to plug the holes in the side of the Titanic — excuse me, our economy — cut but by massive inefficiencies in our tax, trade and banking policies. Meanwhile, nearly 7 millions Americans depend on the unemployment benefits that our politicians are playing games with.

“You have a tax code that is literally designed by lobbyists.  But it’s lobbyists of all stripes,” Rep. David Schweikert, a Freshman Republican from Arizona’s 5th District, told Dylan on the show. “It’s everything from special tax breaks for fossil fuels to special tax breaks for green energy.  It cuts across the board.  But what that does is create a perversity of where capital flows.  So, you have government choosing winners and losers, instead of the efficiency of the market choosing where that capital should go,” says Rep. Schweikert.

Dylan agreed, but said it’s a bit worse than Rep. Schweikert sees it.  “Let’s be honest — you don’t have the government picking winners and losers, you have the government accepting money at auction on behalf of private interests who might be threatened to acquire special benefits for the industry by purchasing the government.”

“If you look at the unadulterated chaos that the Eurozone is becoming, if you look at the level of dysfunction that China has internally with it’s labor markets and with it’s people, what we’re looking at really in this country is a scenario where we are the tallest of the midgets. And that is hardly an accomplishment for a country that gave us Steve Jobs and Walt Disney,” says Dylan.

Watch as Dylan talks with Rep. David Schweikert on the problems of extraction in the trade, tax and banking industry, and let us know what you think.  Do you hear any solutions here, or are we in for more political can-kicking-down-road heading into 2012?

MORE:  Check out Rep. Schweikert’s recent U.S. News op-ed.

– Meg Robertson is a digital producer for DylanRatigan.com. She does not approve of kicking cans, but does approve of groundhogs.  Catch her on Twitter @megrobertson.