THE PRESIDENT Vs THE SPEAKER.

Americans had the opportunity to hear the two depositions by their political leaders on the controversial debate over the federal debt ceiling and its ramifications.

One was to pay off the current debts out right and be able to retain the International trade/credit rating, so as to calm the jitters that were being felt in world financial circles, and the other was to do so on installment basis, which would put it (rating) in jeopardy.

Many would agree that President Barack Obama won the argument hands down, with a stern approach that would remove any doubts in the minds of world financial institutions that America was more serious in meeting its financial obligations without any qualms; whereas the plan by Mr. John Boehner, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, to alleviate the same problem, and to give the world markets the assurance that the nation would remain staunch in keeping its credit status was, at best, lukewarm.

The two approaches were both directed toward the same objective, and that was to avoid default, which was the real issue or focal point to which the two men must strenuously address before a national television audience; and although Speaker Boehner presented his views in accordance with his political ideology, while the president managed to corral public opinion in making his case.

Both men made it clear that default was not an option, and that the debts must be paid on time; therefore the argument that the president was asking for "a blank check" was not exactly true.

The debts have already been racked up by the Congress of the United States, and every member of the appropriations committees in the House, as well as those in the Senate knew about the due amount; therefore to insinuate that the president was requesting anything other than what he should ask for was wrong.

He stressed that both parties should put politics aside and convince their members that the country's financial future was at stake; and that something which went beyond political aspirations was required of all concerned to straighten the situation out.

In other words, he tried to unite the country behind a plan that would be fair to every citizen; equally sharing the common responsibility to handle a huge deficit, which was hanging over everybody's head, in a very practical and simple way.

Speaker Boehner also made the effort to sound convincing, but there was the obvious strings of a group of just elected Tea Party members being attached to every statement he made. They had influenced his decisions from day one; and if so, it would be hard for him to disassociate from their advise, whether good or bad.

However, in the best interest of the nation, he should come around and agree to merge his plan with the one being proposed by Senator Reid, Majority leader in the Senate, to reach a compromise. It happened to be a one shot plan to resolve the matter once and for all, instead of handling it in two or three stages.

To do so, he has to ask the Republican Party Congressional entourage to put the country first in their deliberations.

As for last night, a great majority of Americans agreed that the president won the debate.

OBAMA'S NEXT MOVE.

Whatever comes out of the Debt ceiling and the deficit reduction talks cannot overshadow the fact that Mr. Barack Obama is still the president of the United States, and like other pressing national issues, the ultimate responsibility in resolving them rest squarely on his shoulders.

He must do all he can to sustain and maintain America's AAA trade/credit rating status in the financial world by avoiding a default on paying the government's International debts that are currently due. August 2nd, 2011, is the scheduled deadline for payments to be made, and he must not miss that date for the sake of America's economic future.

Anything short of that will destroy the country's already fragile economy that he has been working so hard to improve. Interest rates will rise, and unemployment levels will get out of hand for the worse.

A default, as it has been predicted by several high ranking economists and intellectuals, will make the stock market to become frantic; a kind of financial turmoil that will put Wall Street in a mode of uncertainty. The country will be left in financial ruins that will be hard to repair for many years to come. That, unfortunately, will be nobody's fault but his, as president.

Everybody knows that those he is having talks with are adamant and dogmatic; and they will never be on the same page as he. Fortunately, he is aware of their political agenda, and that they will not give him the slightest wiggle room to maneuver and be successful in any way, shape or form, in whatever he chooses to do.

Their strategy is to have him politically stranded, and people will say that they are hearing him no differently today as from yesterday. No matter what he says or does, he will be spinning his wheels in the rut of the mushiness that has been left behind in the form of a budget crisis, since the great depression of the 1930s, by his predecessor. That will firmly be to his enemies' advantage; and that is exactly where they want him.

They have made it clear to him in plain and simple language on so many occasions that they want him to be a ONE TERM president. That being their objective, there is nothing he can do to satisfy them; let alone for him to say anything to please them.

The country can go to blazes as far as they are concerned, so long as he is president. Their opportune time is now, on the campaign trail to next year's general election, and they are not going to let it slip through their fingers. To put it bluntly, they are not going to sit around and wait for him to get cocky and be too confident in his attitude toward his re-election ambition in 2012. In fact, any minor thing that speaks well of him will be an anathema to their cause and that of their supporters.

In recent weeks, he has been attacking them and asking that they should contribute their fair share through revenues that are needed to reduce the nation's enormous fiscal deficit. If after such vehement attacks, he thinks that they are going to listen to him, he has another thing coming.

The Republican Party wants him out; and they and their friends are plotting day and night to get rid of him. So, it is actually a waste of time for him to be calling them to the White House and trying to reason with them. That will not work.

In other words, they have put him on notice that his days are numbered in the Oval Office; and they will never be at ease until that happens. Therefore, to invite the same kinds of people and drink tea with them does not make any sense at all. Their mind is made up.

What he must now do is to find a way around them and come up with a plan that will save his administration, as well as the nation from degradation. America has never failed to honor its financial obligations, and he has only one chance to avert such a morose end.

The United States Constitution gives him the right to pay any and all debts the country owes; and therefore, he must concentrate on that provision and prepare to use it.

America needs his leadership to pull it through a dismal economic recession; and his next move must be one that will indicate to his detractors that he has the instrument, given him as mandated by the authority of the U.S. Constitution, to deal with all matters, fiscal and/or otherwise, that are pertaining to the United States; and nobody can stop him from exercising that authority.

Those whom he trusted to come up with a solution have already withdrawn from the talks. Or at best, they seem less interested in talking. Let them stay away, or take a lackluster approach to the talks.

Now, it is your turn to show them that no amount of bullying can deter you from doing your duty as the President of the United States.

Mr. President, forget about the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Wall Street Journal, Steve Wynn, whose wife has just divorced him, and people of his caliber; they are all in the same camp, and they are doing everything in their power to undermine you.

What is left for you to do is to get the backing of the American people behind you; nothing can be more important than that. You have already started to do just what they "the people" want you to do by telling it like it is, that the elderly, the poor and the needy cannot bear the brunt of the deficit reduction alone. Others must come in to help; and that is the truth.

No more meetings, as they will lead to nowhere; their outcomes will create more confusion in the minds of members of the public. Hammer on your message and make it to resonate as clear as possible that you are capable of handling America's financial problems, come rain or high water. All you need is to have public opinion on your side. It (public) has already started to rally behind you, Mr. President.

So, keep on doing what you think is right for the nation.


P.S. The bottom part of the blog sounds like a letter to President Obama; and it is.

P.P.S. Mr. Wynn's divorce, as reported by New York Times. (Steve Wynn, the billionaire chief executive of casino operator Wynn Resorts, is officially divorced for the second time from his wife, Elaine.
January 14, 2010).

P.P.P.S. He (Wynn) lives in a glass house, and so he must stop throwing stones.

A G.O.P. BREAK-UP?

The GOP is on the brink of a break-up, as many news reports are pointing to this morning, solely because its lower rank that consists of the Tea Party members, who have been recently elected to Congress in the last lame duck session period in November 2010, plus the ultra right-wing of the party, on one side, versus those who are more experienced veterans in Congressional procedures, on the other, are vying for nothing less than power to determine the party's future.

This has been seen to be long coming during the debate over the limit of borrowing by the United States Government, which has to be raised in order to allow it (government) to deal with its financial obligations, and to be able to cover all expenditures that have been incurred over a certain span of time.

President Barack Obama has said that the exercise, which was known as "raising the debt ceiling", must be initiated ahead of a deadline date of August 2nd. 2011, or else his administration would default in making its payments that were due. That would indicate America's failure to meet its fiscal essentials for the first time in history.

The national debt itself is gauged by how much the government owes to its International debtors, like China and Japan, which is presently standing at a whopping $14 + Trillion dollars; yet, it has to go up by another hefty $2 1/2 Trillion dollars more for payments to be made to those debtors.

It has become a problem for both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party for a compromise to be reached between the two on how the situation must be handled, so that it would not jeopardize an economy that has been struggling to come out of a recession, since the transfer of power to the Obama administration from the latest Bush government.

The Republican Party has maintained that the run away spending of President Obama was standing in the way of raising the debt ceiling, and therefore cuts must be made to reduce the spending.

The Democratic Party has also insisted that if any cuts were made, they should not affect entitlement programs, like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, to the extent of weakening them. Elderly citizens and the poor happened to be the recipients of those programs, and that they would find themselves at the end of the stick, if drastic measures were directed against them (programs).

The Obama administration therefore suggested that revenues should also be raised in the form of taxes on wealthy citizens, to make up for the differences that the deficit reduction would bring about. Without that, it would be seen as making only the elderly, the sick and the poor paying for balancing the deficit reduction; and that would seem unfair.

The Republicans would not want taxes on the wealthy in a recession, or permit the government to close some loopholes in the tax system that favored corporations and other businesses. They asserted that raising taxes would cause the unemployment rate to increase.

The debate over the two topics, "deficit reduction and the raising of the debt ceiling" has been going on for several months between the White House and Congress; until last night, when it was rumored that the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. John Boehner, has decided to withdraw from the debate.

What might have happened was that there has been a rift within the Republican Party, with its leadership wanting a compromise to be reached in the impasse that has developed between the White House and the Republican Party. The quintessential Tea Party element was making matters worse for both sides, as the talks progressed, with a dogma to stand firm and to push off any ideas by the government.

From all vicissitudes, they (the Tea Party members) have come on the Congressional scene, on the premise that they should oppose the Obama administration on any proposal, whether good or bad; and especially, when it came to government spending, they should not budge an inch.

They were therefore sticking to their guns, instead of allowing a breakthrough to find a common ground on every issue the country was facing; but they would say "NO" to any solution, because it was stated by the government to be an optional exit. That was some kind of attitude to take on their part.

Presently, all the president could do, would be to find another way out of the nation's predicament; as a default would farther exacerbate the dire straits the fragile economy found itself in. He has to act in the interest of the United States as a whole; and who could blame him; for he was assigned to do so under any circumstance, when he was elected president.

As for the GOP, it has a whole lifetime to settle its squabbles; but who could tell what the outcome would be; however, they should not do so at the expense of the nation. Look at all the time they have wasted, to arrive at the decision to withdraw from important talks that would put the country first and resolve its problems. As civil servants, have they failed in their responsibility to the United States? You decide.

P.S. Read "TEA PARTY'S DILEMMA", from yesterday, July 22nd. 2011.

TEA PARTY'S DILEMMA.

"Cut, Cap and Balance" plan by Republican members of the United States House of Representatives has no chance of becoming law, as it cannot pass the Senate, because the plan's objective is to obliterate parts of the traditional safety net programs, like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

The support that the plan had has suffered so much, because most of the members of the Tea Party people outside Congress were no more in agreement with the lawmakers they voted for last fall to give the Republicans a majority in the House.

They have realized that "Cut, Cap and Balance" proposal was to needle the poor and the elderly. The idea to reduce government spending was inexplicable at the time of last November vote that swept the Republican Party to power, and so to take over the House.

If the Tea Party members were told that behind the Republican deficit reduction plan, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security would be drastically cut, to make up for the revenue that would come from the closing of tax loopholes, and also getting back on the Bush tax breaks for the rich, they would not have voted the way they did. The resultant would have been different, in that the Democrats would still have had a majority in the House.

Therefore, the Cut, Cap and Balance plan has become only a shell without the oyster. The pearl, which its originators were banking on, was the support of the Tea Party membership as a whole.

However, that is not the case anymore; and one will wonder why the Tea Party members in the House must be vociferous of Cut, Cap and Balance as being the plan of all plans to resolve the Debt controversy.

That goes to show that the Republican Party is only using its new plan "to throw a wrench in the works"; for, although, they do see the need to raise the debt ceiling, but they will not acquiesce, because of political reasons.

There has never been a time, when the United States Government has been prevented by Congress from paying its bills; so, why now?

If a deal is not reached to get the government to honor its obligations by August 2nd, 2011, President Barack Obama will be in the clear, and the Republican Party leadership will be assigned the blame for a default; and that will not go down well with voters.

The outcome of the crisis will definitely influence their (voters) reaction, in terms of casting their vote against those who have instigated that the government must be stopped from paying its bills before the set deadline, in the first place.

Tea Party members have been duped by the Congressmen and women they put their trust into, to do the right things for them, like reducing a runaway government spending; but they did not expect that by so doing, social entitlement programs would be victimized.

In other words, the backing they (Congressmen and women) had from the Tea Party for those members of Congress to be elected has evaporated.

That is where matters stand right now, for the U.S. government to come out of a fiscal gridlock, and to have the economy moving forward once again, except for the foolhardiness of a few Republican Congressional members, whose intention is just to score political points; and furthermore, to defeat President Obama in his re-election bid.

The issue could be dealt with in the safest way possible; however, Republicans would not want to see the president back in office, for another four years; and so, they would not relent in their opposition to raising the debt ceiling.

They would, however, have done a great, great disservice to the nation, for allowing the deadline that would farther plunge America into a more serious economic blunder to go by. They would have failed to raise their little finger to help their fellow Americans in time of financial need to save the country from a disastrous situation.

In view of that, the Republican Party has become the Tea Party's dilemma; or was it the other way around? They did not actually know what to do, in regard to where either of them stood politically; of course.

DEBT CEILING AND YOU.

The ordinary person does not know the workings of the government; professional politicians do. Therefore, 65% of almost all the polls will put people on the side of the government "not raising the debt ceiling".

Nobody wants to have a debt hovering over his or her head; and borrowing is not a common occurrence for everyone. So, when people are told about more borrowing, they are forced to assume that more debt is being piled up on them.

Now, in all honesty, who wants that?

In government, as in normal business operations, borrowing, in nine cases out of ten, is for expansion or growth; it is a means of wriggling out of a bad situation, and making ready to remedy the causes of that situation. It is a chance that businesses take each and every single day.

Moreover, politicians know for a fact that the debt ceiling must be raised to give any government ample room to manage its current fiscal responsibilities by having enough funds to be set aside in readiness to resolve immediate or "nagging" problems.

Therefore, the high poll numbers for not raising the debt ceiling become quite understandable; because, under normal circumstances, people do not want to incur debt.

However, if they are told that raising of the debt ceiling is just a stop-gap measure that any government takes to come out of emergencies, then they tend to oblige to that rational.

That is the position in which President Barack Obama's government finds itself, and in that sense, raising the debt ceiling becomes necessary, not only for his administration, but for the country as a whole.

People are saying that the current recession is bad enough, but if they have to wait for the deadline set for August 2nd, 2011 to go by, the government will have to find another way to meet its financial obligations. It will be in default for not being able to pay all its debts; but If it does cover most of them, it (government) will be alright.

However, the aftermath of a default for the man in the street will be different. Gas and food prices will go up, rent and mortgages will have to be topped up, businesses of all kinds will have to pay high interest rates to remain operational; and all that will go to boost the high unemployment rate, and of course, jack up even more an exorbitant cost of living for everyone.

That will be the scenario at the lowest level of society. Yet, on the high level, Wall Street, which happens to be the gauge of the economy, will be having a hard time rearranging or recouping from mortified transactions. America's AAA trading position will be downgraded; and the whole financial world will be turned upside down.

Is that what people like you and me want? They will blame the Obama government, but it will be too late; and those who want the president's downfall will have succeeded. However, the whole country will be the loser.

The Democratic Party members of Congress are saying that the debt ceiling must be raised to get America out of trouble; but the Republican members (and some may have good intentions) are arguing that to be a state of degradation must be the only option that the nation must choose. Many people will disagree with those Republicans; and the question is, whether their choice is fair or acceptable to all Americans?

I don't think so; how about you?

DEBT CEILING DEADLINE.

It will be an understatement to say that Americans know that they are facing an enormous fiscal problem, whose outcome will determine how the nation's future finances will be handled to keep it in the "black", and permit it to stay economically afloat for, at least, the next ten years.

It has been in the "red", with an exceeding $14 trillion debt that no single person in the country is happy about.

It has become a situation of making a blunder by any serious investment organization to invest its guarded resources in a country that is swimming in so much debt. The question investors are confronted with is, if the United States is no longer a safe haven for major capital investments, then where else can they go?

A blueprint is required to pull the American economy off the cliff within the next few days, with the deadline set for August 2nd, 2011. Meaning that if nothing is done by that time to overcome the present predicament, the nation will be forced to default on its debt payments.

If that is allowed to happen, it will mean that the dollar will decline in value, interest rates will rise, and the adverse specter of unemployment will raise its ugly head even farther up; making it extremely difficult for everyone to have a normal life.

In other words, the financial landscape will change so much, with Wall Street being in disarray, and corporations cannot plan ahead for fear of more recessions or even a complete stagnation.

Businesses will close, as banks and many financial institutions will begin to spin their wheels in perpetual agony, because they cannot make loans that will place them in good stead. To continue operating under normal circumstances will be impossible for them.

The prevention of a default will be to raise the debt ceiling from where it is now, to empower the government to deal with the diabolical economic quagmire that will ensue after the deadline, if nothing substantial is done, as we speak. Anything else will be "throwing water on an oil fire".

The "Cut, Cap and Balance" proposal by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives seems to have had a clear majority vote yesterday; but it does not fit into a balanced approach that Democrats in the House, as well as in the Senate, can support to make it work.

President Barack Obama has his eyes on "the Gang of Six", a bipartisan group, whose aim is to figure out a set of ideas that will be satisfactory to lawmakers, to enable them to pass them (ideas) into law, which he will sign, in order to avoid default.

Let us hope that Washington will seize the opportunity and come together to find a solution to a dead-end situation. They must get to grips with themselves, despite political leanings, and make every effort to enable them to waive off the dismal, financial calamity that is hanging over the heads of all Americans.

They have the backing of all citizens of goodwill to arrive at a sensible conclusion; one which will be in the best interest of the country as a whole.

DEBT CEILING AND DEFICIT REDUCTION.

The debt ceiling and the deficit reduction combined controversy continues to invade the privacy of all Americans.

President Barack Obama has devoted most of his time in meetings after meetings to get lawmakers to work with him in resolving the problem that the country faces; hoping that his efforts will be rewarded in the end.

Several plans have been put out, the latest being "Cut, Cap and Balance", which has been sponsored by the House Republican majority and will be ready to receive a vote today, Tuesday 19th, 2011.

However, its chances of passing through the Senate is so slim, it is predicted to suffer a DOA (Dead-On-Arrival) outcome in the upper chamber; or it is slated for a presidential veto.

Yet, other plans are being considered for America to refrain from defaulting on its debts for the first time in history; an event that will be froth in widespread economic tragedy.

Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has the boldest one of all, which he names as "Back to Black", and centers on making deeper cuts to achieve its objectives.

"The senator is unveiling a plan to reduce deficit spending by a whopping $9 trillion, shrink government by some 20 percent and balance the budget, all within 10 years.". "It's specific, it's detailed, it makes hard choices," Coburn said. "And it's rough, but it's necessary.", he is quoted to have added.

The good news is that the attention of a whole nation has been drawn toward a single goal of getting America to be economically sound again; and even though there are varied plans, they are all designed to nurture America's fiscal condition back to good health once more.

No matter which side one finds himself or herself, failure by the United States to default on its financial obligations must not be an option. It will disastrous.

It will be like going to your local bank to get some of your own money out and finding no one there, although the doors are still open for business. You will meet thousands of others who are waiting to do the same thing; and imagine the bedlam that can cause. If that does not send a cold, chilling feeling down your spine; there is nothing that can do so.

At the present moment, there seems to be an underlying factor of confusion on Capitol Hill. Some may even say that Congress itself is dysfunctional; and therefore the odds are in favor of failure to meet the deadline set for August 2nd, but the stakes, however, are too high for such an occurrence. Sleeplessness has set in for many Americans, and they must find a common ground to compromise on the present state of affairs.

It may well seem that the motivation of some members on the Republican side is to see that President Obama fails in the first African American national administration. However, what will be the point? Presidents come and go all the time; but a nation is purported to be there for as long as possible. A national catastrophe is about to happen; and is that not what they are in Congress to prevent?

People with such sinister ideas will not be hurting just the person they hate, but the future of many others, who will come thereafter. Posterity is what we must gear our attention to, in order not for it to suffer from the mistakes by present day generation.

For their sake, a solution must be found to combat the enormous debt the U.S. has incurred over the years; and that will make life better for them, as a result.

The debt ceiling and the cutting back on runaway spending vibrations are resonating all around us; the feeling is rather uncomfortable, so let Congress do something dramatic to stop those bad vibes.