After a long and contentious legislative season in Concord where many legislators seem more concerned about dismantling government than making fair and just laws to improve New Hampshire’s quality of life, I was especially looking forward to a summer of routine household tasks and “honey do’s”. However, in light of the national debt crisis – the idea of putting behind me libertarian madness in exchange for the luxury of mowing lawns and trimming hedges has turned out be just an illusion.
Unfortunately, I along with everyone have had to deal with Washington’s political bickering and inflexible representatives whose intent is making the President look bad and crippling government! A local paper recently carried a cartoon that showed the US Capital [Senate – Dome – House of Representatives]. But on the House side they substituted a child’s play set (sandbox, swing & slide). The point being that the US House is acting like children. A cute graphic – unfortunately, the end result of such selfishness will be horrendous and could devastate the nation and world economy.
So who’s correct – who are we to believe – yes spending is out of control – but why are they insisting on balancing the budget on seniors who spent all their lives paying into social security, yet not willing to cut corporate loopholes? Why are seniors being asked to bear the burden and why would government risk military paychecks in wartime? What about all those corporate “fat-cat” tax loopholes – shouldn’t they put something on the table? I remember the mantra how the tax breaks for the wealthy would stimulate investment and create jobs – but where are those jobs? Sadly, it seems like the rich are just getting richer and the poor are… (Well you know how that saying goes!)
This week I experienced an interesting perk of being a NH Rep when the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs invited me to participate in a conference call regarding the debt crisis and ongoing negotiations. One of the principal participants was Jason Furman (Deputy Director - National Economic Council) who with others cautioned us about the need for a balanced approach and a long term resolution.
Now there are basically two different plans in play – one by Senator Harry Reid that calls for a down payment on deficit reduction (2 Trillion Dollars), plus places some caps, and starts to address the corporate “fat cat” loop holes. Also, the Reid plans provides long term certainty to the economy. The second is by GOP House Speaker John Boehner that has only 900 billion dollars in deficit reduction – and extends the debt limit only for 6 months. This means we will have to revisit this same turbulence again in February. Furthermore, Speaker Boehner’s plan calls for major spending cuts (like social security) and refuses to put on the table any of the Corporate Fat-Cat Tax Loop Holes.
Many financial analysts share the opinion of the CEO for Pacific Investment Management Company that “this short term approach will probably push stocks and the dollar lower and leave the US Debt Rating extremely exposed to a damaging downgrade”.
Closer to home the former mayor of Portsmouth NH – Steve Marchand – stated that “between August 3rd and 31st, the US Government has $306.7 billion in bills due. The government expects $172.4 billion to come in during that time. Without raising the debt ceiling, somebody's not getting the $134 billion they're billing starting next week…” Now many will recall the recent financial problems in Greece, which while only accounting for 2% of the EU economy almost, crippled the European Union. Just imagine what the impact of the US Government defaulting will have on the World’s economy!
Now is not the time to play politics as usual – yes Mayor Marchand is right “the way the US raises and spends money is, simply put, unsustainable,” but we need to raise the debt ceiling by next week.
