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Community Comment

Fixing the debt ceiling…

David Horsey,davidhorsey.com,seattlepi.com
David Horsey,davidhorsey.com,seattlepi.com

Good morning, Netizens...

 

Do you, or anyone you know, have an in-depth understanding of how the debt ceiling works? I guess that requires some understanding of how our economy works or is dysfunctional.

 

David Horsey's cartoon depicts one view of the budget impasse, but I admit there are perhaps as many solutions to the mess we've gotten our economy into as there are problems that cry out to be solved.

 

On one hand we have the multi-millionaires and billionaires who ostensibly pay less taxes on their incomes than lower-to-middle class do, all under the belief that “trickle-down” economies work. Lots of people, including some of the legislators, all seem to believe trickle-down works, but over history I have yet to see how it works in reality. Some of the above are the same people who export most of our jobs to foreign countries, and these nifty offshore schemes cry out among the loudest for taxation.

 

Then we have the debt ceiling itself. Raising it is tantamount to giving the teenagers, who cannot manage their own personal lines of credit a new credit card, forgiving all their past exorbitant spending habits so they can purchase the (enter device(s) they really, really NEED). The Tea Partiers, on the other hand, are saying, tear up the credit cards, give back the spendy cars and pay the debts you've already accumulated; LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS. There is something to be said for living within our collective means.

 

We have a lot of name-calling being done on both sides of the political aisle. The US is in financial straits right now with unemployment still far too high, banks and other corporations hoarding their profits, false foreclosures, raising rates where ever they can, condemning any and all attempts to put regulations back in place, and we have these so called republicans doing absolutely nothing but condemning everyone who sides up against them as socialists or even worse, terrorists.

 

Somehow, out there on the fringe of our national picture, we have to bring back the jobs we have exported to foreign shores and put Americans back to work. All you have to do is look at the row upon row of shuttered factories and plants across the country to see how far we collectively have fallen. It's time to close the loopholes that allowed this travesty to happen, to put hard-working American workers back to work, and put America back into its former role as the manufacturing leader of the world.

 

Judging by the economic malaise where America currently finds itself, it is my considered opinion we need to expediently get this straightened out. Then tax the hell out of those responsible, who have profited so handsomely for their role(s) in our current position, including some of our elected officials for some of them have profited for their roles in creating the loopholes to begin with.

 

It's time to put some polish on the old Liberty Bell, and to do that we need some good old-fashioned elbow grease, not political malingering. Of course, your results and beliefs may differ.

 

Dave



Spokesman-Review readers blog about news and issues in Spokane written by Dave Laird.