Debt Ceiling

It seems like every six months we are having a debate regarding raising the debt ceiling. How is it that spending is this out of control that we have to continue borrowing more and more money? On top of this, our economy is still relatively fragile, and republicans and democrats can't seem to meet in the middle. How many more government run programs can we continue to fund? It amazes me that our government continues to give out blank checks to fund countries overseas on top of handing out blank checks to unnecessary programs here at home. These issues are not even being talked about in these debates. 

What annoys me about this situation is people like Jack Lew, Secretary of Treasury, calling on Members of Congress to pass a "temporary" spending bill? What does this even mean? That a bill should be passed to continue funding government until we run out of money again and will need another debate about the debt ceiling? That is absolutely ridiculous. There needs to be extreme spending changes made if we want to get out of this mess we are in and if we want to be on a more prosperous path in the future. It seems to me that Obama is unwilling to get rid of Obamacare, because that is his legacy and he does not want to be remembered for it not happening. 

In 2006, when Obama was a Senator, he had this to say about the debt ceiling at the time: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better." I could not agree more with this viewpoint; I just wish he still had this mentality as POTUS. 

I say now is a good time to start shutting down programs we don’t need the government to be running. The NSA seems like a good place to start. I would then go to the IRS and dismantle that. The Board of Education seems fitting to defund (I would revert to the 10^th Amendment and let the State’s run their education programs). I would then eliminate the Department of Energy and Department of Commerce. Is this a bit extreme? I do not think so. Something big needs to happen to get us out of this mess; these little cuts each party is trying to make is not going to work.

What bothers me about this whole situation is the mass media promoting these temporary changes. The news anchors for these big stations are pretty much telling both parties that they need to come to an agreement and “compromise”. Really? How has compromising worked out for us in the past? Well we are in this situation now, so it doesn’t seem like it has done too well in the past. I know that what I am proposing is not going to happen. What will happen is the democrats and republicans will reach an agreement to continue to fund all of these departments and will continue to give money to foreign nations. In another six months we will be having the same debate we are having right now. Cheers to our future!