Solving this debt ceiling/budget crisis thing isn’t difficult. Seems like common sense to me…
To reduce debt and move towards balancing a budget, there needs to be some combination of increased revenue and decreased expenditures. That’s simple…I learned that as a high school student with a part-time job and my first checking account. So..part of increasing revenue is closing tax loopholes and increasing at least some taxes on some people, which means the Republicans have to give on their “no-taxes” hardline. And part of decreasing expenditures is that at least some entitlement programs need to be on the table for cuts, which means Democrats have to be willing to discuss those things too. I would also suggest that both parties going forward need to commit to decreasing defense expenditures, which is the other major component (along with entitlement programs) of the federal budget….
So both parties give in on their “sacred cows”…both parties commit to some common sense restraint and needed reductions going forward with our military commitments…and we are a long ways toward reducing the debt and having a budget that makes some kind of sense…
That’s not too complicated. So what am I missing here?
What complicates things is that our “leaders” seem to be more concerned about their own immediate political futures and more in love with their own ideological rhetoric being tweeted and played back to them on talk radio than they are with actually doing the jobs they were elected to do…
Sorry if that sounds too cynical. I don’t want to be cynical. But this whole debacle is making it really difficult not to be…
Common sense says that when you spend more than you have over an extended period of time (which we’ve done…the debt ceiling has been raised something like 75 times since 1962)…then things go badly for you and your finances. There are loads of proverbs in the Bible (and plenty of other sayings elsewhere) that warn about the dangers of debt and borrowers being subject to lenders. One of the first things you learn in any personal finance course is not to throw your money away on paying high interest on credit cards to service a debt accumulated by buying what you really don’t need with money you really don’t have. This is all just plain, common sense…
So come on “leaders”…have some guts, make some decisions, and get our country’s house in order…
Sorry for venting. Thanks for listening…
The last time the U.S. had a balanced budget was during Andrew Jackson’s term. Just sayin…
Your cynicism is warranted. The question is are we in a period of leaders like Saul or like David and why did God allow/place them in those places of power? Doesn’t God place leaders based on the faithfulness and commitment of His people? If so, what is our correct response to this crisis of leadership?