CHICAGO, July 30, 2011 — Harry Reid, John Boehner, and the President, are pointing fingers at each other over whether there were ever real concrete plans to end the debt crisis.
They are acting just like the Three Stooges. Poking, shouting, jabbing, cajoling, whining, and gouging.
The debt crisis was a golden opportunity. The debt crisis has created chaos. Chaos creates a power vacuum. The person or group who can fill the vacuum is in control. The debt crisis is not new. It did not just crop up out of nowhere. For over two decades there have been dire warnings that the government could not sustain the spending and borrowing path it has been on since 1965.
Democrats and Republicans have been battling over raising taxes versus cutting spending. All this talk about balance is just that. Talk. They kicked the can down the road. The road ran out and they lost the can.
While there is no plan to solve the debt crisis there are plots. Political leaders never make plans. That is the job of lowly bureaucrats like Tim Geithner. Politicians plot.
There are three plots.
One: President Obama has only one goal. Reelection.
President Barack Obama announces a new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, Friday, July 29, 2011, at the Washington Convention Center in Washington. (Image: Associated Press)
He does not care about the debt ceiling or the deficit. He does not care about governing or leading. He will do or say whatever it takes, even if it is only symbolic. His proposed tax hikes on the rich and the corporations are pure symbolism. Those tax hikes would be equal to a molecule of relief in an ocean of red ink. He knows that. He also knows symbolism is more powerful than reality.
Two: Harry Reid’s plot is to keep as many seats possible for Democrats in the Senate and to increase their majority.
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks during a news conference on debt ceiling legislation on Capitol Hill on Saturday, July 30, 2011 (Image: Associated Press)
He does not care about the fiscal state of the nation or Barack Obama. Harry Reid only cares about raw power.
When Nancy Pelosi was the Speaker of the House Reid had no real power. Pelosi was the most powerful person in the government. Pelosi was more powerful even than Reid and Obama combined. She was the only person in Washington who understood power. She knew how to use, wield, and abuse power to its maximum effect. Her losing the post of Speaker of the House was the best thing that happened to Harry Reid and President Obama.
Three: John Boehner’s plot is a little more complicated. He would like to increase his majority in the House and keep the Speakership, holding onto the reins of power.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, at a news conference as the debt crisis goes unresolved on Capitol Hill in Washington, Saturday, July 30, 2011. (Image: Associated Press)
On the other hand he knows there are many in his caucus who truly believe they represent the people, their constituents, and will vote the way the people want them too. They are the new anti-establishment. They are the problem.
Boehner knows many establishment Republicans could lose the next election, replaced by Tea Party candidates, or worse, Democrats. He could lose his Speakership position. He is forced to play both ends against the middle and it is driving him mad.
These plots are not about saving the government from default, our AAA credit rating, new taxes, or increasing or reducing the size of government. The plots are about winning and filling the power vacuum their chaos created.
The plots are about control and power.
There are common sense solutions out of this crisis. Any head of a household who has to balance a checkbook when there is more month at the end of the money, could solve this crisis. The CEO of a mid-sized company could end this crisis.
Private industry discovered it can do more with less bureaucracy, fewer employees, and still make a profit. It cut mercilessly. Businesses have to do more with less. Households operate like this.
Government is the opposite. Government keeps justifying spending more and doing more when there is no need. Their ability to print money, impose taxes, and borrow gives them that power. The smaller private industry gets the more efficient it gets. The larger government gets the less effective it becomes.
Obama, Boehner, and Reid know this. They just do not care. After them everyone else comes first. It is far easier for a human to raise the dead than for God to get politicians to act responsibly.
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