America Under Seige

It's been a long, hot summer in more ways than one, and it's not over, yet.  Mother Nature has delivered quite a beat-down this year and our elected officials are delivering another.  We might have insurance against the ravages of Mother Nature, but where do we go for relief from our own government?

What probably started out as the usual posturing and threats of a meltdown over the debt limit has apparently backfired on Congress as the Republicans realize their very own tea party is deadly serious about allowing the collapse. It would be funny if it weren't so serious. If John Boehner  had been an effective Speaker of the House, he would not have allowed a minority in his own party to take over and dictate his every move.

Things are bad enough in this country, what with the failing economy and the unemployment situation without all this drama over something as simple as raising the debt ceiling.  Why do we even have a debt ceiling, anyway? Is it some ridiculous effort to balance the budget?  No other country has one.  It's silly to compare today's debt with past debt and deficit. Everything costs more and more every year, and we need to raise some "revenues"  in order to pay our bills.

While everyone in Washington is focusing on the debt ceiling stand-off, they are completely ignoring the one thing that would go a long way toward solving the revenue problem.  JOBS.  In the case of Social Security and Medicare, putting more people to work, and thereby collecting more revenues in the form or Social Security taxes on paychecks would certainly help.

Speaking of Social Security, if our Congress is so terribly concerned about the debt, maybe they should consider the debt the government owes to Social Security.  They might start paying back all the funds they have "borrowed" from that program over the past decades.

If neither party can do anything at all, perhaps they should all resign and let us elect someone who will.

Stay tuned. I'll probably get madder.