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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Community Comment

Heading for disaster anyone?

Good morning, Netizens...

 

Quoting the National Journal, Congress doesn't want voters to conclude lawmakers are all "posh and shiny" and just spent their summer "ramming it to the rest of us." Oh? Given the chaos and mass pandemonium of the last few days, it certainly sounds that way to me. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats seem to have a viable plan to stop the national economy from going into default. Instead of appearing to be the author of a last-ditch bill to prevent default, House Speaker John Boehner seems to me to resemble a political form of endangered species.

 

Last night, as the Republican House sent their proposed bill to the Senate, which was voted down within a short period of time, as expected. According to the Associated Press, those who voted the bill down included Republicans Justin Amash (Mich.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Jeff Duncan (S.C.), Tom Graves (Ga.), Tim Huelskamp (Kansas), Steve King (Iowa), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Connie Mack (Fla.), Mick Mulvaney (S.C.), Ron Paul (Texas), Steve Southerland (Fla.), and Joe Walsh (Ill.).

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) states the Senate has a plan. The Senate now plans to strip Boehner's bill of its content and replace it with language crafted by Reid which, if it works, would be a compromise that would avoid default... maybe.

 

As the clock ticks down toward Tuesday's deadline, it still remains to be seen whether or not the Congress can avoid default. Some members of the Republican Tea Party members are going so far as to suggest that the government defaulting on their obligation to pay our nation's bills is badly overrated; that it would not create the pandemonium that some sources suggest. Nothing could be further from the truth according to economists. A default would be economic mayhem, and we, the People, would end up in serious financial hot water.

 

Meanwhile, back at the White House, it does seem my earlier observation, that President Barack Obama is playing chicken with Republicans. In chicken, there is only one winner.

 

We owe the money and we need to pay our bills, not default on them. Then we need to have a long talk about how to never get in this situation again. Of course, this is my opinion and mine alone. Yours may differ.

 

Dave



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