There are more than a few residents of this neighborhood who are facing default of one kind or another. From experience, they know how difficult it is to reach a point in their financial lives when they must consider letting go of payments they have been struggling to make.
Defaulting on a mortgage or a bond or a promise of any kind is considered bad business because it puts the person who borrowed and who defaults in an entirely different light.
For now, the debate is over about whether or not the United States is going to default on its enormous debt and financial responsibilities of every kind.
But the debate has just begun about how to right the sinking ship.
How do we cut our debts and pay off our credit cards and get rid of our mortgages if we are continually spending more money than we take in?
We can’t.
The national government’s predicament is a reflection of the individuals it serves.
The Federal government can’t continue spending money it does have.
Our congressmen and senators – the liberal democrats – can’t continue endorsing policies that refuse to deal meaningfully with Social Security and Medicare which are bringing us closer and closer to default with each passing month.
When congressmen say that these two can’t be cut and shouldn’t be cut they are, in fact, making this statement: “We don’t care how much Social Security and Medicare cost. They shouldn’t be cut. We don’t care if there is not enough money to pay for these programs. They must go on.”
Great, isn’t it?
But how do our leaders expect to sustain programs which are clearly, incontestably unsustainable if there is not enough money to pay for them?
The legislation averting a default did just that – but didn’t do much else.
The touch stuff comes later.
The national government needs to do what most of us have done in our private economic lives since the near collapse of the national economy three years ago.
It needs to reign in spending. Pay down the debt. And balance the budget.
All of that will go a long way to restoring trust among our partners in the international community.
But without job creation, without an expansion of economy, without a rise in the value of our homes and without a significant wave of confidence and good feeling that the economy is going to turn around, it will only head in the other direction.
Right now, our economy is sputtering. The recent debate about defaulting has left a bad taste in nearly everyones’ mouth about the future here.
Worst of all, our politicians have put party and stale politics in front of real issues and the harsh realities we face.
There is no leadership in Washington.
Everything is about the unknown and everything about our lives and nation seems to be on the line.