The debt ceiling “crisis” is on center stage today. I received an email again today with the following quote from then Sen. Obama in 2006:
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership . Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
This quote makes the rounds every time the debt ceiling is reached and makes the point of Obama’s hypocrisy but what does this accomplish? The American public knows that we have no leadership in Washington. The bottom line is that the debt, the debt ceiling, United States’ credit rating, unemployment and government spending have not been addressed by Congress and the president.
The latest report on the debt ceiling meetings without Obama stated:
Reid was “very angry” in the meeting with Boehner and McConnell, according to a Democratic official. Following the meeting, Pelosi escorted Reid back to her office because she didn’t want the furious majority leader to say anything to the press. Reid is “adamant” about no short-term extension of the debt ceiling, the official said.
The Democrats are drawing the line in the sand for the debt ceiling? The Republicans are willing to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts – again unmindful of patriot demands for fiscal sanity. This is the same resolution that was served up cold to the American people at the last go around. The spending cuts last time were mostly ethereal which is why Standard & Poor’s is demanding verified spending cuts in order to maintain the AAA credit rating.
Is it too late? The clock is ticking and Standard &Poor’s has raised the axe over the neck of a lifeless body once known as the world’s greatest economic engine. Obama will go down in history as the president who “ended the buck” as our economy collapses.
David DeGerolamo
