Here Comes Another Debt Limit Crisis

COMMENTARY-- Here we go again.  Speaker of the House John Boehner outlined his stance in a speech in front of the 2012 Fiscal Summit.  There can be no debt limit increase without further government spending cuts.  Known as the Boehner principle, the gridlock in Congress may continue.

The debt limit deal reached in 2011 included putting off any more debt limit increases until after the November general election.  Boehner called President Barack Obama’s tactics “business as usual.”

To me, it sounds like gridlock won’t be solved until 2013.  Even then, it depends on which party controls the House, Senate and the White House.  If Democrats continue to hold the Senate while Republicans have a majority in the House, nothing will get done.  It won’t matter who is president at that point.

Boehner is setting up another election issue with the debt limit ceiling.  Republicans likely want to re-focus the real issue facing voters in November.  It’s not gay marriage.  It’s the economy.

Boehner’s attack came on the same day as presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney called the debt a “prairie fire,” according to the New York Times.  Boehner called the debt limit ceiling a “cliff.”

No matter what euphemism or metaphor the combatants use, the loser is the American voter.  Gridlock means nothing gets done.  Bickering back and forth only leads to more discontent with the American political system.  Meanwhile, Americans are still recovering from the economic crisis that started during the George W. Bush years.

Get ready for a whole lot of nothing for the next seven months.  The only thing that’s going to happen in Washington, D.C. will be a lot of stare downs, implicating, posturing and plenty of arguing.

I’m trying to figure out how many more wars, natural disasters and economic crises it will take before our nation’s leaders realize they need to come together for the common good.  What if FEMA won’t have enough money should a huge hurricane make landfall in September?  Another Katrina could be just a hurricane season away.

The United States doesn’t need to worry about terrorist attacks.  Leaders on both sides are destroying America well enough on their own.