Silver Lining

It's sad we find ourselves in a crisis. Even more sad is the fact it wouldn't be a crisis if we didn't create it. Most Americans, regardless of political slant, agree our government needs to rein in its spending. And that battle, whenever it does take place, will not be an easy one. None of us want to give up things we have. Even members on the right that have strong convictions about government aid and assistance have no desire to give up their social security or Medicare. And I suspect the day when people get the benefit of healthcare at much lowers prices they will be reluctant to give up that government spending cut as well. However, this battle did not have to take place right now. It was a stubborn group of people, elected by a fringe element of the Republican Party, that created this specific crisis. One in which payments to service members, elderly, disabled, and a whole host of others that receive payments from the government are in serious jeopardy of being stopped. On top of that, and much more detrimental to all of us in the long term, is the very real chance of having our nation's credit rating lowered, even if we do meet our deadline.

However, all is not lost. Last month I authored a piece laying out my vision of the GOP freeing itself from the shackles of the Tea Party. This debt ceiling crisis the Tea Party has created plays right into that formula. John Boehner, even though he seems to be having tremendous difficulty at this very moment rallying the Tea Party members to support his legislation, finds himself in a win-win situation. Perhaps, the best win condition is to not get a bill passed because members of his own party won't get on board. This will allow him to give up on them and use compromise (that means work together for any Tea Party member that reads this) to pass bipartisan legislation. This will go over well with the American public. However, if he does strong arm enough of the Tea Party representatives and offers them enough goodies to sign on and support his bill, the constituents of these Tea Party representatives will not be happy. To add salt to the wound, if the Tea Party members sign on to this and compromise their convictions and it's ultimately shot down by the Senate then it really doesn't set well to the Tea Party constituents. Either way it's a win for the country, regardless if you're a Democrat or a Republican.



This will hardly solve our problems. But it will allow a climate to exist that embraces working together from this point forward. Our branches of government are controlled by different parties and there is nothing wrong with that. That is until these branches decide they can never agree on anything the other caucus presents. Nothing will ever get done if we use this model. Times are tough and people aren't happy with the economic situations they find themselves in, I certainly can relate. But this doesn't diminish the fact we still have to solve problems and find solutions that we can enact to get us back on the right track. We will undeniably debate the course we take and the best policies to use but we have to do something, nothing is not an option. Defaulting on our debt is the worst possible solution and the overwhelming amount of Americans agree on this. Yet, we still find ourselves held hostage by an extreme element of one party. And to this point that party has yet to figure out how to deal with them. Send them to the corner, give them a timeout, swat their bottom, take away their toys, do whatever you would normally do to control your out of control, whiny, bratty, spoiled rotten child, I don't care, just do something about it.