by David Zeiler Money Morning

Investing legend Jim Rogers says it doesn’t matter who wins Election 2012.

In his view, both President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are equally bad.

"I repeat Shakespeare: A pox on both their houses as far as I’m concerned," Rogers said in a Breakout interview this week. "These are the guys who got us into this problem, so why does anybody think they will get us out?"

The "problem" to which Jim Rogers is referring to is the sluggish U.S. economy, dragged down by the huge $16 trillion federal debt and annual budget deficits in excess of $1 trillion.

Rogers predicted that regardless of who wins Election 2012, things won’t get better.

"If Mr. Obama wins, his friends are gonna get more money. If Mr. Romney wins, his friends are gonna get more money. But you and I, and everybody watching this show are gonna be worse off because the debt’s going to go higher, and the turmoil is gonna get worse."

Rogers blames both major parties for the nation’s economic ills.

"All of them have gotten us into this situation," Rogers said. "Look at the last 50 years of American history. Republicans, Democrats, Republicans, Democrats …. It’s not doing us any good. None of us are benefiting by what’s been going on in Washington."

Jim Rogers is so down on U.S. politicians that he has absolutely no preference as to who wins the White House.

"I will vote the protest vote. I nearly always vote the protest vote," Rogers said without specifying which third-party might get his support.

In Rogers’s view, a vote for either major party just perpetuates the problem.

"If they keep sending us turkeys, and we keep voting for turkeys, they’ll send us more turkeys," he said.

Jim Rogers Takes Grim View of Fiscal Cliff

Rogers holds out little hope for a bipartisan solution  or any solution for that matter  to the so-called fiscal cliff.

The fiscal cliff is political shorthand for the economically lethal combination of spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to hit Jan. 1, 2013. It’s the result of the expiration of the President Bush-era tax cuts combined with $1.2 trillion in automatic reductions in federal spending made last summer as part of the deal to raise the debt ceiling.

"I think they’re going to delay it again," Rogers said. "That’s what they do. That’s all they know how to do down there. But it’s not going to help us at all."

But no matter what Washington does, Rogers doesn’t see any easy escape from the fiscal cliff.

"If they raise taxes, that’s bad. If they delay everything, that’s bad," he said. "None of this is good for us. Do you understand that the United States is at least in relative decline? They don’t understand down there [in Washington]. All they want to do is get re-elected."

Even if Washington had the political will to do something about the fiscal cliff, Rogers said, it would make no difference.

"Let’s say there’s a fiscal cliff or not a fiscal cliff. We’re gonna have serious problems next year and the year after," Rogers said. "For 2013 and 2014 you should be very worried, and you should prepare yourself."

Reprinted with permission from Money Morning.

Jim Rogers has taught finance at Columbia University’s business school and is a media commentator worldwide. He is the author of Adventure Capitalist, Investment Biker, Hot Commodities, A Gift to My Children, and A Bull in China. See his website.

The Best of David Zeiler