President Obama’s Bad Faith on the Debt Ceiling

So President Obama held a press conference on Monday to lambast and threaten Republican house members about the upcoming debt ceiling debate. “They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the economy,” he said. “The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip and they (the Republicans) better decide quickly because time is running short”

Really? Or what, Mr. President? An executive order? This from the president who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because he was going to change the world  by ridding Washington of bi-partisanship and beginning a new era of transparency. Well, it hasn’t happened. Not by a long shot.  In fact, in response to a question, at the same news conference, about the President’s willingness to invite lawmakers to the White House during off-hours, Mr. Obama answered “I promise you, Michelle and I are very nice to them. We have a wonderful time. But it doesn’t stop them from going on the floor of the House and blasting me for being a big spending socialist.” Snarky. Just plain arrogant. Kind of like the “we have ships that go under the water” arrogance seen during the debates.

Look, this is what I know:

I know that we need to raise the debt ceiling to avoid default on debt service for money already spent.

I know that this President sees tackling the debt ceiling issue as part of the runaway spending problem as unpatriotic, un-American and self-serving.  It is not.

No lawmaker in Washington, on either side of the aisle should be accused of such devious ulterior motives and to do so, especially at the presidential level, is the ultimate display of crass bipartisanship. It is counterproductive to the task at hand and foments the harshest regard for the process by Americans and lawmakers themselves.

Sure, Republicans need to be reasonable about tax increases, but to demand a concurrent examination of spending is logical, reasonable, doable and, most importantly, the job that those representatives were sent to Washington to do: Balance our budget by reigning in this country’s debt and demand a new mentality that understands that we simply cannot spend money that we don’t have.

We can’t raise it by taxing the wealthy at a disproportionate rate than any other tax payers, we can’t print it without adverse economic affect and we can’t hope that Santa drops a big bag of it on the lawn of the Capitol next December. Any kid who ever got an allowance or any hard-working man or woman who pays rent, a mortgage or a car payment knows this simple reality: You can’t spend what you don’t have and you can’t borrow forever.

To assert that the Republicans’ endeavor to achieve this common sense approach is somehow un-American is misleading and disrespectful to those men and women who just happen to see the solution differently.

Shame on you, Barack Obama.  Patriotism doesn’t belong to one party.