The President is “exasperated” by the ongoing debate about the debt ceiling, frustrated that Republicans won’t just cave, increase the debt ceiling and hike taxes on working Americans so that government can continue with it’s usual spending binge.
Charles Krauthammer makes a point that can’t be emphasized enough: The President and his party have only themselves to blame for not initiating a budget process that would have addressed these distasteful matters of balancing the books. Krauthammer writes:
President Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?”
How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached?
All of a sudden he’s a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his own party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He’s been saying forever that he’s prepared to discuss, engage, converse about entitlement cuts. But never once has he publicly proposed a single structural change to any entitlement.
The Senate hasn’t even initiated a budget process. That’s Congress simply not doing its job. The budget process is supposed to help set priorities and force our nation’s leaders to take a real look at what government can, and cannot, afford. It’s no wonder that we are in the present predicament.
It’s unfortunate that this threats to become a crisis. It’s unfortunate that both Democrats and Republicans have overspent for years on end, leaving us with this incredible bill. Yet this isn’t a sudden unexpected disaster. This has been a long-time in coming Mr. President and you only have yourself to blame for not addressing it sooner.