The following excerpt is from Sen. Tom Coburn’s new book “The Debt Bomb“:
I have spent much of the past two years in meetings with members from both parties trying to solve the debt problem. It has felt like pushing twenty boulders up a mountain of ice. My colleagues are well intended, and I love them dearly as individuals, but there is no real leadership in either party. Both sides do the same calculation: “If I tell the voters the truth, they won’t like me and they won’t vote for me.” They then convince themselves that they can’t do the right thing now because they won’t have the power to stay in office. The force bringing these boulders – and solutions – back to earth is careerism.
If members of Congress knew their current term would be their last, I have no doubt we could defuse the debt bomb within a matter of days. The fact that we haven’t passed such a bill has much more to do with careerism than ideology. Bridging the gap between conservatives and liberals is easy compared to bridging the gap between courage and cowardice.
Although this book is a non-stop exposé of the corruption and incompetence of our elected officials, the above solution to institute term limits and clean the cowards out is a simple solution. But as we have seen in Tampa, the political party leaders have no intention of listening to the people or solving problems. As our national debt hit $16 trillion, the focus of the people has been misdirected to the hurricane and the conventions. The solutions are looking back at us in the mirror: politicians and political parties are the cause of our downfall. The sooner we accept this truth, the sooner we can start the recovery process.
David DeGerolamo
