Special Saturday Post: Disgust Over The Debt Ceiling Travesty, The Four Necessary Steps To Get Over The Crisis

I usually do not post on the weekends, I need those two days to detox my attitude and feelings about the American political class. However, the travesty that is the debt ceiling negotiations in Washington and the disgust they generate for me personally are too much to ignore this weekend.

As most informed Americans know, we are now only a week away from a potential financial disaster. Theoretically, if the government does not raise the country's debt ceiling by August 2, the country could end up defaulting on its financial obligations. This has never happened before so the ramifications are unknown. However, nobody thinks they will be any good.

The most serious, likely outcome is that the government will run short of money which could impact all or some of its functions but is highly likely to result in the credit agencies' downgrading of the nation's credit worthiness and increase borrowing costs. Since the political class and the government it runs borrow $.40 for every $1.00 it brings in, those increased borrowing costs could be very, very large.

Given the dire consequences, one would think that every possible thing was being done to avoid this calamity. Far from it. The five main culprits in this game of politics, Obama, McConnell, Reid, Pelosi, and Boehner, met this morning for less than hour. Less than an hour, unbelievable! The political class is  proving again that they exist only for their own personal political careers and personal political agendas, the good of the of country be damned. They continue to prove they cannot solve any problem, no matter how small or large. Let me repeat, financial disaster ahead and they met for less than an hour.

Given their inabilities and immaturity, let me lay out four steps that need to be implemented immediately in order to have any chance for the country to survive these fools:

- Step 1 - Whenever a company and its union reach and impasse and the clock is ticking towards trouble, what do they usually do? Easy question, they lock themselves in a room, do not leak out any information, and FOCUS on solving the problems they jointly face. Food and beverages are slipped under the locked door and no one comes out until a deal is struck. They do not meet for less than an hour and then leave. Lock the door, throw away the key if necessary, and do not let them out until a deal is reached, regardless if they have to stay cooped up with each other for days with no press conferences, no leaks, no cell phones. That is how real people solve these types of problems in the real world.

Thus, I would consider two lock down scenarios. The first one would lock down the five people listed above in a room until a deal is done, written down, and agreed to. If that cannot happen, then Obama and the 535 members of Congress should be put in a room and they all get locked down until a deal is done. Same criteria: no leaks, no press conferences, no cell phones, nothing until a deal is done and the vote is taken. Anything less than these types of lockdowns is a betrayal of the country.

- Step 2 - in parallel, contingency plans need to be put into place in case a deal is not reached in time. Any such plan should contain a set of prioritized expenditures that would allocate funds to these priorities. Remember, the government is not necessarily going broke on August 3 if a debt ceiling deal is not reached. On a unit basis, while it may not be able to spend $1.40, it will still be receiving a $1.00 going forward. Thus, about 30% of the government's spending would be curtailed rather quickly. The other 70% would then have to be spent on only the essentials that I would list out as follows:

• Pay off Treasury debt as it comes due in order to protect the high credit rating of the country.
• Pay out Social Security checks.
• Pay out Medicare and Medicaid bills.
• Pay out the military's pay checks and expenses as needed.

These four expenses are essential to support the very basic, essential needs of the country. Any left over money would then be used to pay other government expenses. However, in order to start getting under that $1.00 revenue stream, the following steps would need to be taken immediately in order to protect the above four essential expense streams:

• The vast majority of Federal employees would be immediately put on non-paid furloughs. The only Federal employees that would stay on live payroll would be those that service the above four expense streams. Two winters ago, Washington D.C. was snowed in for a week and the government was shut down. We survived that government shutout in fine shape, another short one now would not be a problem for the country either.
• All national parks and national museums would be closed unless they could be staffed with nonpaid volunteers.
• All other government discretionary expenses would be halted immediately.
• All members of Congress and the President would have their pay checks suspended until the crisis was solved. California has a similar process where if the state government politicians cannot deliver a budget on time, the lawmakers lose their salary until the budget is in place. Same thing should apply to Congress and Obama. Screw up your job responsibilities as badly as you have on this issue and you should not be paid until you fix the issue.

The country will not go bankrupt if a deal is not reached, it will just have to go on a severe diet. The above priorities and expense reduction ideas are what is needed to make sure the diet does not turn into a fast. Unfortunately, do we really think these people are capable of thinking about contingency plans, never mind implementing them?

Step 3 - Nancy Peolis needs to just shut up. Her biting, sarcastic, and useless comments and insults, as always, in today's paper that Boehner needs to "have an adult moment" will do absolutely nothing to solve this crisis. I would counter her childish remarks by saying if the President had acted when he should have, years or months ago, and had one of his few adult moments, we would not be in this crisis mode today. Insults at this stage of the game do no good at all but this type of destructive behavior is to be expected by a pure politician like Pelosi.

Step 4 - All of these people need to just go away. They have long been a disgrace to the country and now they are a mortal danger to the country. They are not problem solvers, they are not leaders, they are not good for the nation, they are just useless political animals. In November, 2012, they all need to go away and be replaced by people that are civil, dedicated, smart Americans that can anticipate a crisis before it becomes a crisis, unlike what we are stuck with today.

Sorry for the rant today but come on, this whole issue and the juvenile behavior of everyone in Washington is a disgrace, pure and simple. Lock them all in a room until this deal is done, plan for contingencies, muzzle Pelosi, and start working for their political defeat in 2012. How much simpler could it be.





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