The Debt-Ceiling Divide

"We’re in the midst of a great four-year national debate on the size and reach of government, the future of the welfare state, indeed, the nature of the social contract between citizen and state. The distinctive visions of the two parties — social-democratic versus limited-government — have underlain every debate on every issue since Barack Obama’s inauguration: the stimulus, the auto bailouts, health-care reform, financial regulation, deficit spending. Everything. The debt ceiling is but the latest focus of this fundamental divide.

The sausage-making may be unsightly, but the problem is not that Washington is broken, that ridiculous, ubiquitous cliché. The problem is that these two visions are in competition, and the definitive popular verdict has not yet been rendered.

We’re only at the midpoint. Obama won a great victory in 2008 that he took as a mandate to transform America toward European-style social democracy. The subsequent counterrevolution delivered to that project a staggering rebuke in November 2010. Under our incremental system, however, a rebuke delivered is not a mandate conferred. That awaits definitive resolution, the rubber match of November 2012.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/273017

And where was Barack when he was voting on extending the debt ceiling in 2006. He voted against it. How dare Senator Barack Obama put senior's Social Security at risk!

Too often we hear that people are elected with a mandate for change, but once in power, they find there were only elected because the other guy was worse.

Bill O'Reilly Lashes Out At 'Hateful' Republicans (VIDEO)

Bill O'Reilly took some Republicans to task on his Thursday show, saying that they needed to stop their "craziness," tone down their "hateful rhetoric" and pass a debt ceiling increase.

Speaking to guest host Laura Ingraham from Los Angeles, O'Reilly said he had taken a "moderate" stance on the debt crisis, and he warned Republicans who have so far been unwilling to pass a debt ceiling increase would only be helping President Obama, who he said had taken an "enormous hit" from the debate.

"The only thing that can save Barack Obama at this point is craziness on the right," he said. "...It's not only going to hurt the Republican party, which has already been hurt, but it's going to save President Obama who they hate."

"Exactly," Ingraham said.

"The irony is, the people who dislike President Obama the most...are helping him the most," O'Reilly said. "You've got to stop this hateful rhetoric. Some of the rhetoric is so hateful...it'd spin your head around. You have to say, listen, we're at a point in the history when we have to save the country."

WATCH:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/2 ... 13380.html

Wow... It has to get pretty bad for EVEN O'Reilly to call "foul"....

Yep, pretty funny, Boehner is getting as much pressure from the Right on his latest bill as he is from the leftist blogs for not going far enough.

You have to admit this is some high adventure. Far as I can tell, Speaker Boehner is the only one demonstrating any real leadership at this time.

Just watched the "Three Stooges" led (if you can call that leadership) by Senator Reid essential call the House "lazy". Unbelievable!

What did my uncle used to say, "if BS were electricity, the Senate Dems would be a powerhouse." We will soon know who is better at cards.

The conclusion of this 3 month debacle is pretty obvious, the political system at present is dysfunctional and incapable of managing the government and solving big problems. The budget and tax reform problem needs to be broken down into smaller items and solved one at a time like they are done in the real world. Doubt it will happen until there is a full blown crisis and riots like Greece.

What we end up with Monday is a small stop gap measure that solves nothing long term, and has damaged the economy short term. Confidence in the system is probably at an all time low. If you are a CEO or a small business owner, are you going to expand and grow and hire next week, or hunker down?

What gets me here, (and I do think that both sides needs to pull thier heads out of thier rears), is that the Democrats whine and cry a bunch of BS, especially Reid, and they were in control for 4 years, including 2 years with a Dem President and still did not get it done. Now it is all the Republicans fault. Not even close.

Yep, FY2011 budget and debt ceiling could have actually been passed by Democrats last Aug. (instead of a continuing "kick the can" resolution), with a debt ceiling caring us at least thru Sept. 30 2011. They should be working on next years FY2012 budget right now.