The Debt Crisis as I see it

I was recently reading the Economist when President Obama came on to talk about the debt ceiling talks, more or less warning that Republicans should stop playing a game with the national debt issue and support attempts at more long terms solution to the fiscal crisis. This was the preferred alternative over raising the debt ceiling now, only to bring up the same unresolved issue again in six months.

I usually do not like to point fingers at incompetency as anything exceptional, since I see incompetency and corruption everywhere, but on this issue I feel compelled. The Economist ran a story two weeks ago when talks were just beginning which openly blamed the Republican party for the problem: "Both parties have in recent months been guilty of fiscal recklessness. Right now, though, the blame falls clearly on the Republicans. Independent voters should take note."

http://www.economist.com/node/18928600?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Far%2Fshameonthem

I want to make clear that I am not completely behind the President either. I think Speaker Boehner's claims that the White House has not made credible plans to tackle entitlement reform and spending cuts are credible. The reason I believe that the Republicans are so terribly misguided is two-fold. The first is the extremely misguided belief that a plan must not include any tax increases beyond closing tax loopholes, which the White House cleverly calls a "balanced" approach with cuts and "revenues." The second I believe is simple ignorance. Ignorance of the severity of the situation, ignorance of economic principles, and simple ignorance of what it is they were sent there for. Democrat or Republican, voters want competency above all things. That is why Democrats voted for Obama in 2008, that is why Republicans gave that party the House of Representatives in 2010. Competence is why I marched to the Rally to Restore Sanity. Unfortunately I see a lot of talking and not a lot of doing coming from leaders in both parties. I'd like to take the time now to thank the President for at least engaging the opposite party and expressing a willingness to listen to their concerns and give them concessions for the sake of reaching some kind of agreement.

The President has been criticized for including cuts to the Defense Department as part of the spending cuts. I think it is only logical that in this time of fiscal crisis, with two wars winding down, it makes sense to consider spending cuts in the Defense Department budget.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/us-defense-spending-the-mismatch-between-plans-and-resources

I wanted to bring this up to put it all into perspective. With the events in Norway, and the ever-present threat of terrorism in our minds, it is important for me that the country is able and ready to defend itself, however nothing can be off the table, and if the situation calls for a cut to the Defense budget then I think it a wise thing to do. Dogma at this point, either on Defense spending or on cuts-only plans, is simply foolish.

I believe that the White House should make clear and credible plans for tackling entitlement spending and cuts going forward. If the Democratic party is to emerge from this battle with any semblance of face it must show that willingness to take on those issues, to silence the extremes of its caucus and really put this on the table.

Right now I am disappointed with Congress. More than I have ever been, specially with certain members of Congress going so far as to demonstrate their insanity by denying the threat posed to our economy from a default. I await to see what happens August 2nd, and whether our government will really step up. At this point any hope that either party will emerge as competent is gone. This is not a partisan issue, and it should never have been a partisan issue. I just want results.

Let me know what you think about this, reader. I am curious what you think, and your perspective on the debt-crisis. Do you find it as distracting as I do? With Congress spending so much time running around on this issue, other important legislation (read: immigration reform) is going no where. Thank you for reading, until next time.