US Congress can't be trusted to govern
By: Cahir O'Doherty | Published Wednesday, August 24, 2011, 2:37 PM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 10:24 PM
The debt ceiling will be raised. That much seems clear.
But in getting there the damage has already been done: namely, by the GOP controlled Congress who have demonstrated they can't be trusted to govern the United States in a responsible manner.
With the Republican rank and file putting the party and ideological purity before the common good and all common sense, at the moment it looks like no deal is possible.
On Wall Street big, intractable problems tend to get resolved with urgency and without political posturing, but the opposite happens in Washington. Thanks to this lingering debate mistrust and ill will have grown between the parities.
But it's become quite clear that in drawing a line in the sand over the debt ceiling the GOP House has miscalculated, because what looks like good good sense to their Tea Party base looks like political and economic suicide to the American public.
The business community have been patient. They have waited for sense to prevail. But this week they lost faith in the GOP's ability to govern. That's why 470 CEO's sent a letter to every member of Congress and the White House urging action on the debt ceiling and expressing support for deficit reduction.
If anything has to convince you that the GOP have reached a further shore of governmental hubris, it's the sight CEO's reduced to begging our congressional representatives to reach agreement.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell put his cards on the table long ago: his job, he said, is to stymie President Obama. McConnell's convoluted plan to give the President unilateral power to raise the debt ceiling is really nothing more than a gambit to ensure he'll get all the political blame for an out-of-control budget.
This is the kind of blatant tactic that convinces the US business community that GOP politicians are ignoring extremely harsh realities to further their party's political interests.
The nation is looking on and coming to the same conclusion.
21 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.maloney | Jul 25, 2011, 08:01 PM EDT
Cahir, why don't you do all the comments yourself since you delete all the ones you don't like. It might make you another 10 bucks a month for your one and only slant.
eiriamach | Jul 17, 2011, 05:09 PM EDT
The Gallup polls are on the Internet, maloney. People can figure it all out for themselves. Republicans are trying to dismantle the social safety net and return us to a 'homo homini lupus,' anything-goes, rampant and unrestrained capitalist exploitative free-for-all. Everyone has a choice-- to behave like sheep for the wolves to devour or to vote Democrat.
OleSarge | Jul 17, 2011, 06:11 AM EDT
It is the season of liberal political hacks sucking up to Obama. Obama doesn't lead, the Democratic Senate doesn't lead and neither put forth any plan to curb government spending. All they want to do is tax and tax some more. and why do they want to impoverish the American people, why to keep expanding the government.
eiriamach | Jul 16, 2011, 12:12 PM EDT
Where do the Obama bashers below get their misinformation and their chutzpah? One of them writes, "there are many more Americans who disagree with you than agree with you." False and insupportable! Most of them indulge in name calling or sweeping generalizations for which there is no factual support whatever. On taxes, for example: anyone who can Google Gallup polling knows that Obama did not misrepresent the data. The July 7-10, 2011 poll by Gallup has 43% in favor of reducing the deficit "equally with spending cuts and tax increases, "mostly with tax increases," or "only with tax increases." Slightly more, 50%, favored "only with spending cuts" or "mostly with spending cuts." BUT NOTE: the questions in THIS poll did not specify what kind of tax increases would be used. Last September, 44% of those polled by Gallup favored keeping the Bush-era tax cuts for incomes under $250,000 (32% of Republicans & 60% of Dems favored this strategy) and ENDING the tax cuts for incomes of $250,000 and above, while 15% favored ending all the Bush-era tax cuts. That's nearly 60% favoring increased taxation of one kind or another. There's nothing to indicate that the majority of Americans have changed their minds and are now disinclined to tax the rich fairly as part of deficit reduction. Clearly, Americans oppose the current Republican intransigence against taxing private wealth.
johhnyb | Jul 16, 2011, 10:48 AM EDT
I must be missing something here. Why are 470 CEO's urging action on the debt ceiling and expressing support for deficit reduction. Surely it's because they don't want more debt? If that's the case then the Republicans are right to refuse to raise the debt ceiling. Am I wrong?
hollabackgurl | Jul 16, 2011, 08:36 AM EDT
The Tea Party have been useful idiots for the GOP and we're watching a bit of meaningless theater to placate them: but once Wall Street says enough silly games you can expect to see the party move quickly to do the inevitable.
odonnell521 | Jul 16, 2011, 04:25 AM EDT
The Fox GOP News channel, Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck must be so pround of all the village eejits they have produced (for evidence, see above). The only realy problem is their Wall Street masters are starting to get a bit ticked off about this debt ceiling thing and may take their financial support for the Tea Party elsewhere - first rule in politics, never bite the hand that feeds you.
donal1951 | Jul 16, 2011, 03:20 AM EDT
I'm beginning to think the USA would be better off with a parliamentary system where the PM is head of government and either a constitutional monarch, or a somewhat of a figurehead president, similar to Ireland, is head of state. We need a coalition government but quick and it cannot happen under our current system. The leaders of 1916 and their successors were smart not to imitate the American model of government.
JBRAFTREE | Jul 15, 2011, 08:21 PM EDT
When Medicare recipients don't get a cola raise for two years, and the cost of our insurance is going up because the people that can't afford insurance are getting it at my expense. (The minorities, no, the majority.) I hope their asses grow together!!!!
caramia | Jul 15, 2011, 07:50 PM EDT
It's not as if this debt-ceiling crisis just appeared, magically, out of the blue. The Obama administration has been operating without a budget for 2 years. And until 6 months ago, the Senate AND the House AND the presidency was controlled by Democrats. So where were all the decisions then to handle this crisis in the most beneficial way to American business, et al? It's been manufactured to make the Republicans look like the bad guys: smoke and mirrors by the Dems. If no "agreement" can be reached, of course it will be the GOP's fault, and Obama will use executive order to cram his solution down the American people's throats. Again. So he can feel like the "king" he thinks he is. I personally cannot wait for November 2012.
caramia | Jul 15, 2011, 07:29 PM EDT
First, there is no "GOP controlled congress", and make no mistake about it: OBama is "running for president", and getting ready to stick it to the American people yet again. You'd actually be surprised at how many Americans don't worship the ground Mr. OBama and his co-horts walk on. If you're going to "publish", you should at least make a small effort to get at least SOME of the facts correct.
cillowen | Jul 15, 2011, 06:27 PM EDT
repugs are stuck in, protecting their oligarch master to the hilt.
Scrivner | Jul 15, 2011, 05:54 PM EDT
Cahir, Obama may have developed his goals from the Hyde Park Liberals, but he learned his tactics from the Daley Machine...crush your enemies, compromise to co-op and divide & conquer. Listen to the comments coming from the White House, the offers, lack of offers, tantrums and walking out in a huff. The vague warnings of cutting off Social Security and Veterans Benefits and defaulting on debt, show that Obama would rather bring hurt on the populace than give in for the good of the country.
allentown | Jul 15, 2011, 05:46 PM EDT
How do you negotiate with the Democrats in congress that have not offered a budget for the last two years and who voted unamiously to reject their own Democratic President's proposed budget.
Maoleitigh | Jul 15, 2011, 03:56 PM EDT
O'Doherty you are 180 degrees out. When are you guys going to take your heads out of the sand and wise up?
joan1954 | Jul 15, 2011, 01:13 PM EDT
Face it, they are all out for their own pockets and constiuentcy and to hell with the rest of the country at large. But "we the people" are expected to live within our means but Congress and senate are not. Granted many people use the plastic while forgetting that they must pay the piper at some point. Comeon people all parties are to blame in this, one for holding hostage sort of and the other for living beyond its means. Get real the middle class is almost extinct, it is the very wealthy or the very poor. There is no money being made for those who have a little to save. Why? Interest rates are non existant.
carrickcourt | Jul 15, 2011, 11:48 AM EDT
I have to get my two cents in on Mr. O'Doherty's very good column concerning the debt limit 'game' the Republican party is playing in the House of Representatives. The comments on this issue so far appear to be the standard Fox News line of blaming the President for something that is clearly now responsibility of the Republican party. The Republicans even pulled back from a commitment to reduce the deficit from the amount they had originally agreed with with the President on. The problem with the debt and the deficit is the refusal of the Republicans to be deal with this issue in a responsible way. The debt limit has never been held hostage by a party in the past and should not be held hostage now. The problem with the deceit is the failure of the Republicans to acknowledge that the deficit has to be addressed by cutting government spending and increasing revenues to pay for the bills we have. Asking the billionaires to pay their fair share of America's bills will not stop job creation especially if we are talking about things like taxes on corporate jets. Of course the Republican party tend to be the billionaires' party so we cannot expect the Republicans to ask their billionaire buddies to pay their fair share.
PhlutiePhan | Jul 15, 2011, 10:51 AM EDT
In our system of government, we are a representative democracy and not a democracy. This means that the Congress is the people. The president is the cheif executive and carries out the wishes of the people.
kelauggie1 | Jul 15, 2011, 10:40 AM EDT
Your blame could not be more misplaced. Our current president is a democrat, congress has been in democrat hands from 2006 to 2010, and this time represents the largest debt increase in the history of the world. Now when the republicans want to stop this runaway disaster, you want to accuse the GOP of failure to consider what's best for us? It's back to Economics 101 for you - we'll wind up like Ireland if we don't gain control of our spending immediately. And it's back to Politics 101 for you - your article is an editorial, with a heavy slant on socialistic democrat thinking. Thankfully there are many more Americans who disagree with you than agree with you.
TomFitz | Jul 15, 2011, 10:25 AM EDT
As if we haven't got enough lazy liberals over here in the states! You people have to add you idiosity to all the lies and scare tactics that Obamination has already spread throught the country! I thouth this was "Irish Central" with news about Ireland not another political agenda to boost this idiot Obama. The only reason he got elected is because the "Minority" is now the majority! There are more lazy ass peope getting hand-outs from the government than there are hard working folks who pay the tab for them with their taxes! So of course the leeches within the US will do anything to keep him in office. Obama's desperate need for attention is clearly a psychological condition. He drinks in applause like a washed-up movie star. It is usual for neglected children to develop narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), typically characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a strong sense of entitlement, preoccupations with utopian fantasies, elitism, manipulative tendencies and pathological need for praise. President Obama was abandoned by his parents during childhood. Now he exhibits the textbook symptoms of NPD. He thinks his powers are godlike in import; "I have a gift, Harry," Obama once told Sen. Harry Reid. He believes he is entitled to positions of power and prestige. He has never worked a real job in his life, yet deigns to tell the rest of us that he embodies our hopes and dreams. He is obsessed with nonsensical utopian fantasies of one-world peace and harmony in which nuclear weapons are beaten into plowshares.
shamrock99 | Jul 15, 2011, 10:20 AM EDT
WOW ! What planet are you living on? Your hatred of the Republican Party totally blinds you of factual information.