Wall Street is trying to send Washington a message that can be ignored only at the government's own peril as well as that of the rest of the country.

The message - conveyed Monday in the sixth largest one-day drop since the market crash of 1987 - is to stop the short-sighted bickering that has resulted in two federal closures in less than two months and produce a budget agreement.At least that message is getting through to policymakers at the Federal Reserve, which responded wisely Tuesday by cutting short-term interest rates in an effort to give the hesitant economy a helping hand.

In response to the Fed's action, the stock market rebounded sharply. But the gains can't be expected to last long until the White House and Congress stop turning deaf ears to pleas for less partisanship and more flexibility on the budget.

Those pleas aren't coming only from investors. Just ask pollsters Ed Goeas and Celinda Lake, a Republican and a Democratic respectively. Both say the general public views the federal shutdown as an artificial crisis that could and should have been resolved before it reached this point. Neither party is viewed as being able to manage the government properly. Politicians in general are seen as being out of touch with their constituents' daily lives.

But investors are in an especially acute bind because the impasse over the federal budget creates uncertainties that make it hard for them to plan ahead. Among the plans impaired are those involving outlays for the new and expanded businesses needed to hire more workers and generate more government revenue.

Nor can the business community be expected to be placated for very long by the Fed's decision to cut by a quarter percent the federal funds rate that commercial banks charge for overnight loans. Not when it takes Fed interest rate changes at least six months to affect economic growth.

The bottom line is that both Wall Street and average Americans see the budget impasse as being less about principle than it is about the 1996 election. If Washington doesn't soon stop this self-serving jockeying at the public's expense, both the White House and Congress could pay for their stubbornness and selfishness next November.

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