The Battle for the Debt Ceiling

            There’s been plenty of action lately; the winds of change might not be category five yet, but things are getting exciting for the first time in a while. The big issue is the showdown in D.C. raging right now. A battle royale between John Boehner’s Republicans and Harry Reid’s Democrats. The issue is as basic as could be: how to best deal with our national debt. We are less than a week away from the painstakingly real possibility that the federal government will not be able to borrow any more money. But the two sides (or at least their figureheads) are offering very different answers.

            Boehner wants a short term fix. His plan would make $900 billion in cuts and would raise the debt ceiling for just a few months. Meaning we would have to revisit this whole debate again in the fall. Reid and other leading Democrats have said they will kill this bill immediately if it were to pass the Republican controlled House. Reid’s plan would call for the debt ceiling to be raised throughout 2012, while making $2 trillion in cuts.

            Both sides are having closed door, clandestine meetings for their parties, excluding opposition from coming in and making deals. At America’s most desperate time domestically, the leaders of the country continue to act like spoiled brats on the school yard at recess; they whine and moan and storm off when they don’t get exactly what they want. But at the heart of it, both sides want the same thing. Neither really wants some great victory for the American people; they simply want to see the other party lose.

            There will be a vote on Boehner’s bill tonight. And win, lose or draw, the politicians come out the same as ever; greased and grinning ear to ear, paycheck still in hand. As long as it looks like they tried, or even if it looks like they tried to make it look like they were trying to help the rest of us they can hang up their rock and roll shoes and call it a day.  No matter what happens tonight, they’ll still come out on top, and the rest of us will have to sigh and shoulder even more.