Monday, August 8, 2011

U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade: It’s Our Parent’s Fault, Claims the White House

By David Kilpatrick

Last time I checked, the government was working FOR the people – at least that’s what our founding fathers intended. As such, we the people have not only the right, but the responsibility to supervise the government in many ways the same manner that a parent must supervise a child. Sure, we TRUST them to watch the house while we can’t (CIA) and keep the doors locked while we are at work (military) and we even trust them to go to the store and buy things we need when we can’t.

So, what happened when we gave them their first credit card (the power to borrow) and they maxed it out - then discovered they didn’t have enough allowance from us (tax revenue) to make the payments? Did they take responsibility for the problem and reduce spending? No. Did they realize months ago that the course they were on would lead to this eventually? No. (so they say) What did they do? They blamed us. They claimed we should give them more money while calling the credit card company to ask for a limit increase with us as a co-signer. They then reminded us that because we did not raise their allowance fast enough – we created the problem for them. This mindset alone should warrant giving President Obama (our eldest child) a good spanking and a few days in “time-out”. Now, just as any responsible parent (which we haven’t been so far), we will need to step in and get the kid’s financial house in order. No, we can’t count on his help, he’s gone out to play (endless golf breaks) and instead asked congressional leaders (his younger siblings) to “set aside politics” and lead the country. As parents, this puts us in an awkward position. Accept the blame for the problem due to the limited allowance we gave or accept the blame for putting such an irresponsible person in charge in the first place. Either way, the blame is completely ours. Whichever side you’re on, we simple can’t kick the “Yes, we can” down the road for the next group of politicians, who will only try to figure a way to kick the “Yes, we can” down the road even further. You see, eventually we will run out of road – and the contents of the “Yes, we can” will be completely rotted and hard to swallow by the time reality MUST be faced. So when President Obama chides us by saying that he promised “Change we could believe in,” but he didn’t say “when”, I wonder what the change was exactly. It’s like he’s saying, “You didn’t ask me for any details, so I never gave you any. Don’t be angry at me for not living up to expectations if neither of us ever put them in writing.”

The question one keeps asking is: who’s leading the country? President Obama keeps deferring all responsibility to Congress, Congress is getting blamed for proposing things contrary to the president’s plans – which, one might note, don’t actually exist in a paper form of any sort. Small wonder congressional leaders are getting miffed by a president who keeps “moving the goal posts” and bemoaning the “messy democracy” involved in getting things done while he quietly slips out the back for another round of golf, only to return tomorrow to criticize congress for not leading properly. So when President Obama chides us by saying that he promised “Change we could believe in,” but he didn’t say “when”, I wonder when and what that change was exactly because, so far, it has not been for the better. It’s like he’s saying, “You didn’t ask me for any details, so I never gave you any. Don’t be angry at me for not living up to expectations if neither of us ever put them in writing.” I guess “the planet healing itself” thing is out the window. Bummer – I was looking forward to that.