Log In | Register
Today in Washington, DC, it was forecast to be 104 degrees, but the weather was nothing compared to the heat that the participants in the debt imbroglio are generating in their attempt to press for advantage in the debt ceiling death spiral. On the surface, at least, it seems like straightforward ideology, but dig a little deeper and you will also see American power politics at their most inefficient, frustrating, primitive, and dangerous.
Although the solutions to America's fiscal woes are varied, complex and unattainable in the short run, the problem itself is relatively simple. The American government spends more that it collects in revenues, and it has to borrow money to cover the difference. In this regard, the United States is not very much different from the average American, and in general the arrangement permits us to have what we want now without paying for it all now. Within reason and a fairly wide margin of error, such schemes are good because they contribute both directly and indirectly to the creation of wealth for most people.
There is something of a limit to how much can be borrowed by most debtors, but an erstwhile superb credit rating like that of the United States government could usually borrow more money at reasonable rates. At the moment, some leaders are not willing to raise the legal limit on how much we can borrow without also imposing changes on the way in which the government spends the money it takes from citizens and lenders. Without some sort of compromise, this will all end in tears.
On the surface, the battle is between: 1) those who want to protect entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other programs that aid those who are unable to take sufficient care of themselves and 2) those who believe that we must stop spending more than we can collect. In an ideal world, we would do both, and when an economy is humming along, and with just a modicum of restraint and wisdom, that's exactly what can happen, to everyone's great satisfaction. When the economy stinks--as it does now and will continue to do for some time---choices have to be made, and because these are not choices at the margins, people are ready to strangle each other. Whatever slim wisdom these people may have possessed has evaporated in the oven of ideology and political advantage.
Some of the loudest vituperation seems to be for President Obama because he actually tried to take some leadership of this critical process, and his stable-mates don't like the need for compromise that this difficult situation requires. And they may have reached him: he has not yielded to Republican entreaties to reform taxes as part of this deal. Of course, the Democrats in Congress would be less vocal if Obama were unwilling to yield on the matter of entitlements, and Boehner's quitting the negotiations is helpful neither to the process of solving the problem nor the public's regard for Republicans. But leadership is not something any president or Congressional big-shot can demonstrate easily, and if Obama and Boehner feel that the mere logic of their arguments should be sufficient persuasion to convince the other side, they both need to get back on their medications.
The budget needs to be slashed, revenues need to be increased, and the debt ceiling needs to be raised. The number of things on which the nation should be unwilling to compromise---imperatives like freedom and national security---should be very small. If 536 people can bankrupt the other 307,000,000, then the latter should be properly irate and demand that their representatives act like adults rather than the narrow-minded, sanctimonious fools that they appear to be. If it seems that politicians are squandering the nation's well-being in an attempt to win a virtual game of power politics, it is not without the ample evidence that they are.
