Fiscal (Ir)responsibility

I get it. Nobody wants or needs any tax increases. We have spent ourselves to the brink of the precipice and we are looking over the edge. This scares me. As someone who, through my own brand of irresponsibility, has come close to disaster, I know there is only one way to get back to a place where the smallest misstep won't be fatal. Pay it all back and save some up for that "rainy day" our parents told us of. I had the benefit of a government program that allowed a judge to arrange for me to pay back my creditors. The United States has no such benefit for itself.

In 1898 the federal bankruptcy program was set up to allow debtors to repay their creditors in full or in part and allow them to restart their financial lives. Congress is now in the unenviable position of having to do this for the government. What makes this difficult is twofold. One, the entire population is involved in whatever austerity measures Congress enacts. Two, there will be an election next year for the entire House, one-third of the Senate, and for the President and Vice-President. The posturing and gamesmanship is in full spate. Whatever is done, people will be unhappy with both parties. The only certainty is that, if the debt ceiling is not raised, unhappy doesn't enter into it. Our country will be well on the way to becoming a third-world country. I know many think that is already the case. I understand that without this Damocles's sword over our heads we may well be unable to make the cuts and tax increases necessary to avert a disaster even worse than the one we feared three years ago. But there is insufficient time to do the job properly. August 2 is too close. I urge a single resolution: raise the debt ceiling immediately. Then have the guts to admit we won't get out of this awful hole we've dug through cuts alone.