(Sara Michele Crusade/Examiner.com) – The debate rages on about whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. Nevada’s own Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is siding with President Obama in his desire to increase the debt ceiling just a couple trillion more. The Republicans in Congress are pretending to hold the line for fiscal conservatism, stating they’ll only approve an increase in the debt ceiling if accompanied by massive spending cuts.
The whole argument is contrary really, because deep spending cuts would mean we wouldn’t need to increase our ability to borrow and spend; theoretically anyway. And what happened to living within our means? Absolutely no credit card company, bank, or corporation will increase the borrowing capacity of any ordinary American who has difficulty paying on his debt.
Imagine being unemployed and having difficulty making even the minimum payment to American Express, and then having the audacity to ask the credit card company to raise your credit in order to get further in debt… and then having American Express graciously increase your spending limit. Not a very likely scenario.
So under what circumstances do Obama and Congress think Americans will turn a blind eye to the absurdity of this folly? I suppose there are some citizens who have bought into the fear tactics of the Democrats; stating that the Republican refusal to capitulate to the liberal plan will cost senior citizens their social security payments and Medicare, veterans their benefits and such.
And I suppose there are those who will stand with Obama, as they did before, because he’s purported to be the first black president and therefore must represent all non-whites against the evil Euro-Americans (let’s ignore he’s half white, and would be considered white as lineage is passed down through the mother…).
On March 16, 2006, then Senator Obama said, “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.”
Senator Obama, the man Louis Farrakhan compared to the Messiah in 2008, also said, “I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem. The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure” (March 16, 2006).
Talk about hanging yourself! Why is it that President Obama is now okay with “shifting the burden of bad choices… onto the backs of our children and grandchildren?”
And what of Senator Harry Reid’s (D-NV) position?
In March 2006, Reid stated, “Why is it right to increase our nation's dependence on foreign creditors?”
I don’t know Senator Reid. Why don’t you enlighten us as to why it wasn’t okay on March 16, 2006, when President George W. Bush was in office, but it’s okay to sell Americans down the river now?
I understand the fiscal concerns of a country exceed those of a household, but I don’t accept that basic accounting is different. If the money does not exist to spend, don’t spend. Americans don’t have the luxury of printing our own money when the bank statement is leaning toward the red. And those who foolishly borrow from title loan companies, family and friends, only find out the inevitable; their debt has increased but the ability to pay it has not. It isn’t long before bankruptcy is the next step and we are defaulting on those loans.
It is our own fault really. We the people have voted for these inglorious bastards, and re-elected them in the face of the obvious. We have chosen to pretend that the country takes care of itself, much as some of us pretend our bank account and bills will take care of themselves.
We have opted for a life of leisure, working our 40 hours and then plopping our ever-expanding butts on the sofa in front of cable television instead of taking responsibility for being Americans. Being the best takes effort – ask an athlete. There is never time to rest on our laurels.
And quite frankly we have far too many citizens walking the line between conservatism and entitlement. I’ve not heard any senior citizens verbalize their willingness to give up social security as an option to decreasing ravenous spending programs; not that they would have to in any of the plans put forth by Republicans to balance the budget. What I’ve heard from my conservative senior friends is that the budget needs to be balanced, spending needs to be cut, and damn them all for not raising the monthly social security payment another year in a row.
I understand today’s retirees have paid into the social security system, and it should be funded to care for them, although it’s a program that shouldn’t exist as a retirement income at all. But hey, I paid into social security too, and I am not blind to the reality that my money is gone. And I’m sure not arguing in favor of continued funding just because I’ve paid in for the past 35 years.
Entitlement is entitlement! Prior to 1935, when President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, destining us to financial ruin, senior citizens either worked until they died, saved for their retirement while they worked, or did without. Medicine was not near as advanced as it is these days, so we didn’t have as many seniors living way into the retirement years.
Like the 19th century folks, I will more than likely have to work until I die, unless I can rise above the financial peril our politicians have put us in and actually earn a decent living, saving and investing as I go. I’m in my sixth month without employment, searching for work outside the state of Nevada to improve my odds. Time will tell, but despite my investment in social security, I’m more than willing to give up the social security entitlement if it will save my country.
While the Democrats complain that the Republicans refuse to compromise on the debt ceiling, at the same time the Democrats refuse to compromise with any Republican plan, Americans are led astray once again by divisive Party politics that have no bearing on the real issue at hand:
We are a country out of control. Our politicians have obliterated the only financial security we had by eliminating the Gold Standard; supporting a Federal Reserve that’s tasked to maintain stability of the very financial system it has corrupted; and spending non-existent funds, and funds borrowed from China (a superficial friend at best), on entitlement programs and expanded government the likes of which remind me of ticks feasting on a dog.
Whether or not the debt ceiling is raised, we as a nation are in for a rough road ahead, and had better make some serious decisions about our true priorities. These United States cannot survive a continued increase in debt, and continued mismanagement by the very self-serving narcissists we elected to serve us, who have looked after themselves and their interests instead of US.
(Sara Michele Crusade has been a freelance writer and photographer for over 20 years. Her work has been published stateside, as well as in Germany. She has been concerned with politics most of her adult life, however has found her calling in the conservative movement. Sara is a veteran of the U.S. Army, and holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology. Email Sara at conservativecrusade@yahoo.com.)
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