In This Corner

By Gerry Garrison

W ell, my friends, the time has come to put up or shut up.  We ain’t bluffing.  I am calling President Obama’s bluff here and now.  Either put something on the table or get the hell out of the way. The lack of leadership from the White House on our budget is so not there.  How so very sad.

Meanwhile, the American people have to suffer all the slings and arrows of degrading, scare tactics from the President and his liberal cronies in the Congress and, as Rush would say, the “Drive by Media”.

The Republicans are doing everything they can to plug this whole, before this arbitrary of 2 August comes and goes, that our tax evading Secretary of State made up. I see all work coming from the Republicans and nothing from our President or the Democrats in Congress, except hyperbolic scare tactics meant to scare the poor and the elderly.

Meanwhile, here comes Bill Clinton saying he would skip Congress, if it was up to him, he would let the courts decide if he was in violation of the Congress.  He would use the 14th amendment to ignore the debt ceiling and get the debt ceiling raised by executive order. Really?

Even Treasury Secretary Geithner believes the debt limit is legally binding and can only be raised by Congress. If Mr. Obama listened to Bill Clinton, it would be just another socialist attempt try to circumvent the constitution. The Congress had better be looking out for this to put a stop to any attempt by President Obama to go around Congress on this issue.

My question is this.  What happens if 2 August comes and goes, with no agreement made on the raising the debt ceiling?  Will the Democrats or the President/Treasury Secretary propose another “artificial” date to raise the debt ceiling?

It seems to me the whole thing falls on the Democrats and the President. Why?  Because they had an opportunity to pass a budget last year, when they controlled both houses of Congress.  Why didn’t Pelosi and her leadership get a budget made up and push it through Congress? 

Was it because they were too busy trying to pass Obama Care?  How’s that working out for you?  Still want to blame George W. Bush for our economic woes?  What American with any common sense still believes that fairy tale?

A ll we get is scare tactics and reasons for them to do nothing.  Meanwhile, nothing is getting done. It is time for some good, healthy, bipartisan work to get done on this.  It now appears something is going on behind the scenes. I am not holding my breath.

If we don’t do something, will the U.S. economy fail?  Many economists believe so.  They also said the same thing when the government shut down during the Clinton administration.  It didn’t.  I know it is not the same thing, but no really knows what will happen, until it happens.

I could go on and on about this.  All I know, with the election looming next year, whatever happens will have a definite effect on who will be our next president and how our congress will look once the dust settles.  I am so sad this had to come to “Politics as Usual”, instead of some meaningful conversation on how to get a budget passed almost a year later.

But what do I know?  Just sayin . . .