How to Deal with the Debt "Ceiling"

Here is a suggestion from former Colorado senator Gary Hart in a post on his blog Matters of Principle:

My fellow Americans. Tonight I have signed an order raising the debt ceiling for the next two years. I have taken this extraordinary step because I had no other choice. My duties under our Constitution include being commander-in-chief of our armed forces. Our forces are presently engaged in two long wars as well as hostilities in North Africa. I have taken a solemn oath to ‘preserve, protect, and defend’ our Constitution. To jeopardize in any way the well being of our troops, especially while in conflict, to endanger their pay and the housing and care of their families, to place in doubt our ability to pay for the care of the wounded, to place in doubt all the logistical support armies in the field depend on, would not only be unconscionable, it would be unconstitutional.

“My counsel and some of the finest Constitutional scholars in the land have expressed ambivelence about this step. There will be time for them, and our judicial branch, to debate, and quite possibly overrule, my decision. But that will take time and we do not have time. Lives are at stake. I know with certainty that at least one segment of American society, the parents and loved ones of our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines serving abroad, will understand and hopefully support this extraordinary action.

Let me translate:

President Obama, get a spine! Act like a leader and face down these clowns who are using political tricks to endanger the country in order to win a political game.

Will Obama listen? I'm pretty sure he won't. Obama has shown himself to be more right wing in his views about:

• Debt - it is more important to shrink government and handcuff social programs than to provide a responsible government


• Jobs - they will "look after themselves" after this austerity program shrinks government and "inspires" businesses to have confidence to spend money to build plants and produce goods that nobody has any money to buy


• Security - he ran against the Bush wars, but he has greatly expanded the 10 year war in Afghanistan and after 2 years of more lives lost and more money wasted, there is no more "security" now than before


• Government - he promised "transparency" but has done nothing to allow ordinary voters to understand who is doing what and why. In fact, he has created new laws to punish whistle-blowers with revealing failures in government. He has put real fear into anybody who would try to expose corruption in government


• Constitutional rights - very simply: you have none! He has continued and extended the warrentless wiretaps, ignored Habeus Corpus while illegally detaining more people than Bush, and added other measures that simply make a mockery of the Constitution. This from a "Constitutional law professor"!

He has proved himself to be even more to the right on these another policies than the average Republican. But he ran and won as a Democrat and his former supporters are simply shocked at how they have been lied to and abused by his misrepresentations.