The Debt Crisis

As I was preparing to blog today, I was looking up hot topics. I was sure all the trending topics would involve the impending deadline that the nation is facing. After all, everyone is talking, blogging, facebooking, and tweeting about it. Most all of us will be strongly impacted by what ever the ruling is. That is unless you are among the very wealthy. But I was wrong. According to online trends, the only topics that are trending are all about the NFL and all the trades that have taken place in the last 24 hours. Now, I am a huge sports fan and in future blogs, I will probably include a lot of sports content. But today is not the day. I was really almost sick when I saw the cover of the NY post. On the cover it depicted shirtless NY Jets receiver Santanio Holmes downing a bottle of Crystal champagne. He was celebrating his 50 million dollar contract that he just signed. So what who cares. He is among the few who will not be impacted by what's going on in Washington.

The rest of us could be literally screwed if the Nation's present AAA credit rating is downgraded. Those of us who have been trying to spend responsively since the economy shit the bed in 2008 could be in big trouble. We will end up paying for Washington's carelessness. For most of this century, Americans spent well beyond their means. They purchased the life they wanted on credit always intending to pay it back later. Once the economy collapsed after all the bets Wall Street made didn't pay off, we as Americans started spending more wisely. To our credit, we started living within our means.

Americans started honoring their obligations and paying down their debts. We did what we were supposed to do. Now we are hearing that Washington may blow off paying their debts down. How is this possible? But guess what folks it is possible!  And if it happens, we are the people that are going to end up suffering for it. But thank God NFL players won't suffer, right folks?

Congress Stalemate

Well it seems that the Congress has reached a stalemate and frankly I'm a bit troubled because between our president and speaker of the house John Boehner its like a school fight on the playground. Each will not budge. The president talks about compromise but it doesn't appear that he is open to it to the degree he needs to be. I listened to both parties and while I am not a political pundit it seems that we are far from a compromise that needs to happen within a week. Obama started his speech by giving statistics of Reaganomics. He said that the debt ceiling was always routine. He said historically, Congress has always passed it. Reagan did it 18 times. He went on to say so did George Bush Sr, as well as, Clinton.

In his address to the nation, he went onto directly intimate to our working class and seniors that if there were deep spending cuts it would affect our Social Security benefits as well as tax raises for middle class. He also stated that interest rates on credit cards, mortgages, and car loans would increase exponentially. Obama went on to say that the economic catastrophe would be all Washington's fault. First of all 6 months extension would not help. The greater danger is that the House Of Representatives will refuse to raise taxes among the wealthiest Americans. Obama said, Congress has a week. Serious debt reduction has to passs both houses of Congress. Enough members of both parties will put our differences aside. The debt is stacked against working class Americans and they are gonna pay instead of the wealthy few. He went on to say Americans didn't vote for a dysfunctional government. Americans believe in every point of view. He pontificated that from Slavery to war there was always compromise. He quoted Jefferson" Every man can not have its way". Americans, put country above self. They held us together during difficult times Obama said we need to show the world that we are united. Not just because we will keep our words and obligation but because we can come together.

It seems that this was an appeal from Obama to the American people. He is trying to put pressure on the republicans to cut a deal that will raise the debt ceiling another 1.5 trillion dollars. John Boehner speaker of the house appeared to refute the tenets of Obama's speech. We aren't living within our means. US can not default on its obligations. We need spending cuts. I made a sincere effort to work with the President. Unfortunately the President consistently maintains we need a balanced approach, Boehner asserted that the President wanted a blank check six months ago and he wants one now. He stated that we are gonna pass a bill that is based on bi partisanship. That is the bill we are sending to the President. Spending will be cut by a billion dollars. Boehner doesn't talk about the fact that that will include cutting SS and other governmental funded programs as well as raising taxes on the hard working. He states the same old rich adage Bigger the government the smaller the people. If your spending more money than your taking in, u need to spend less. The one distinct difference between Obama and Boehner that is clear is that the one in the White House clearly cares about the American Citizens. All the American citizens and not just the wealthy few.