We are only a week away and still no closer to a deal. I’ve listened to both sides of the argument and am still puzzled. People become hypocrites when they appear on other networks. There’s so much double speak it’s impossible to get a clear read on anything, it seems people will step on their own interest in order to fall in line. I think all sides should be heard and from that pull the best ideas.

In today’s toxic climate no one wants to do that, everyone wants to be right. They want their names on Broadway with the theme song, I Did It My Way played in their honor. This is stupid as well as disastrous. Washington is showing exactly why they are hated. This makes people scratch their heads and wonder why they vote.

One thing that is bounced around quite a bit is one-term president and that’s fine with me. It falls on the talking point by presidential hopefuls. They can safely say that; why: because they aren’t going to win anyway. Let’s get down to brass tacks, the country is trying to avoid default. How do we avoid default, raise the debt ceiling. Why are we having such a hard time with this simple solution.  Back to my earlier one-term point. People in Washington know this, Reagan raised it 18 times and Bush raised it seven times, but when it comes to the president of color it seems to have become an issue.

With this President the talk of a blank check is raised, WHAT! What is a blank check and where’s Politico or Factcheck.org when you need them. A point that isn’t being talked about is the current administration is paying off previous debts NOT new debts. While Reagan and Bush created the largest debts during their perspective terms there weren’t any issues(with raising the debt ceiling). Reagan created Star Wars and Bush attacked the wrong country, how did that work out for us?

Don’t misunderstand me, I believe spending is out of control and must be reined in. What I don’t understand is when spending was at historic highs previously nothing was ever said, that’s what bothers me. Look default is a bad thing ; both Boehner and McConnell  know this. That’s the reason why they were going to allow the President to raise the debt ceiling himself. They also knew the Ryan plan was a sophomoric attempt at best. What this does come down to is posturing for reelection, especially on the Repub side. Both the Tea Party and Conservative bases must be appeased.

The other infamous talking point is there will not be a default as long as bond holders get their interest payments. The problem with that idea is you have to pick and choose what gets paid first, we know the treasury would put us in first priority in case of bankruptcy.

Lastly we have to understand how this affects or would affect everyday people. Interest rates go up for personal, home and auto loans as well as credit cards. The U.S. could also lose its AAA Bond Credit Rating which will result in higher interest rates for us to borrow. If the government pays Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, defense contractors and unemployment benefits they may not have enough to pay federal workers, military whom the conservatives hold so dearly yet avoided so dearly when their country needed them most.  Pell Grants for college students and  highway construction could also be effected. This whole debt default thing is a little more troubling than what is really being said.

John Jones

The NON-Conformist