The Audacity of Nope

This was published in the August 7, 2011 Trenton Times under the title, " We must unite to solve our nation's problems"

I’m disappointed...and so are many other Americans. When Barack Obama was elected, we had the audacity to hope that the tendency to deadlock in Washington would be reversed – that there would truly be non-partisan cooperation, and there would truly be harmony. But the struggle for superiority continues to work against such an elusive goal, and we continue to hurtle toward the abyss. The total lack of cooperation, and indeed the rampant obstructionism – the ubiquitous use of “no,” is frightening. It seems that Nancy Reagan’s “Just say no” slogan has been co-opted for far less noble purposes.

The behavior of our elected officials, particularly in our nation’s capitol, is very disheartening. We entrust these people with our lives and our livelihoods, only to see them gamble away our limited wealth in games of brinksmanship, wars of attrition, and schemes of Ponzi. And most recently, with our country tetering on the edge of bankruptcy, we’ve seen them at their worst – pointing fingers, issuing ultimatums, wasting time while other major issues are burgeoning, and each waiting for the other to blink. What seems to be lost on them is that compromise is not necessarily a bad thing, and doesn’t have to be a zero sum proposition. A rising tide can lift all boats, but not if they’re too firmly tied to their moorings.

The games being played by our elected officials are extremely dangerous. With a refusal to agree on anything meaningful, not only are we losing our credit standing, and with it, much of our economic value. We’re losing our place as leader of the free world, which desperately needs a strong leader. We’re also losing the momentum we’ve built with growing prosperity, where each generation is better off than the last. We owe it to our children and their children to keep their dreams alive.

Wars of attrition are being waged in many ways, both domestically and internationally. On the inside, with our elected officials’ parties sniping at each other and refusing to cooperate, with actions bordering on extortion, they’re gaining nothing for themselves, and by their intransigence, continuing to sink our economy. On the outside, our involvement in the Middle East continues to be a swirling vortex, and the more we spend, the less we seem to achieve. By squandering our treasure against unseen and often duplicitous enemies, we fulfill the very goals of terrorists – to destroy our financial foundation, and in doing so, rob us of the desire to interfere with their plans for domination.

Charles Ponzi would be proud to see how our government has adopted his financial strategies. We’ve built pension plans, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, bond issues and other programs that have morphed into financially ruinous schemes that count on tomorrow’s revenue to pay today’s bills. We talk of many of these programs as “entitlements,” and lose sight of the fact that for many of us, they are investments that we have faithfully made, while our government hasn’t kept its side of the bargain. The very idea that we can continue to raise the debt ceiling with no viable plan to pay off the debt should be ringing loud and clear in the heads of every ethically-minded individual.

Our great nation is in danger of collapsing under its own weight and our experiment in democracy may not survive. The debt we’ve run up, the regulations we’ve entangled ourselves with, the underfunded entitlements and subsidies we’ve created with incentives to game the system, are all piling up on top of us. Our government seems to be good at placing more burden on its citizens, especially in good times, but seldom takes any of it away, even after it’s proven to be a failure or its usefulness is diminished. In addition, the Baby Boomers (of which I am one), who are responsible for much of this dysfunction, are causing a surge in expense and a shortfall in revenue as they leave the workforce and move into retirement.

It is clear that our problems didn’t materialize overnight. Expecting them to disintegrate overnight is pure folly. Similarly, expecting reduced expense alone, or increased revenue by itself, to solve our problems in the short term is not realistic either. We need a comprehensive balanced approach to move the country in the right direction, and we need it now. Revenue increases need not be permanent, while spending cuts can and should be. We have to realize that a plan of such import will take some time to implement, and even longer to have the desired effects. So we’ll have to be patient, and we’ll probably have to do without for a while. And we must all be willing to share the pain and sacrifice.

But we must have a plan, and we must have the resolve to see it through. In the meantime, the increased debt ceiling will provide some necessary breathing room. It’s long past time for our elected officials to get serious about reducing our debt and living within our means. Time is running out for them to find some common high ground, before the rising tide drowns us all.

A Bitter Bill to Swallow

This was published as an op-ed in the October 2, 2008 Trenton Times, in response to the failed vote in the House of Representatives on the economic "bailout" plan, in advance of the revote expected on October 3.


There are many words in the English language that have dual meanings, but the duplicity of one word, “oversight,” is at the heart of the singular most important debate of our time. Our economy is in shambles, in large part due to the lack of oversight by our government, which allowed this perfect storm to brew without taking any definitive action. It seems, however, that there has been plenty of oversight, of the “Oops, I guess that one got by me” variety.

While few Americans are thrilled about the thought of investing $700 billion with no guarantee that any of that investment will be worth anything in the future, there seems to be little doubt that something urgently needs to be done. The mere failure of Congress to pass the “bailout” plan caused a one-day drop in market value of over $1 trillion. My guess is that when Congress reconvenes, it will reach agreement on the plan, repackaged as a “rescue” plan, with a couple of face-saving tweaks to give some of the previous opponents cover. This bitter bill to swallow is perhaps all that stands between us and the abyss.

What should have been a non-partisan call-to-arms has devolved into a childish morass of finger-pointing and name-calling. Our Republican President, as lame a duck as he may be, tried to rally the Congressional forces together to do the right thing, and do it quickly. There can be no denying that the current economic debacle is having global consequences, and our already shaky world standing is taking yet another hit. Nevertheless, the President’s call was met with backlash, even from his own party.

It’s amazing that Senator McCain “suspended” his campaign to go back to Washington to help get the bill passed, with the result being that 2/3 of his party’s contingent in the House of Representatives voted against it. At the same time, Senator Obama decided to remain on the sidelines and leave the legislative action to those who have been most engaged, and 60% of his party voted for the bill. The same day that Senator McCain said he was “suspending” his campaign, he appeared at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting and gave what was arguably the best speech on the economy of his campaign, and made a big point of his personal magnanimity in putting his campaign on hold.

Despite Senator McCain’s stated desire to eliminate partisanship from the discussions about how to resolve this problem, it seems that his involvement has done anything but that. The plan, put forth by the Republican administration, went down in defeat. When the votes were counted on Monday, Senator McCain’s party came up far short of the number that needed to be delivered, and the Democrats came up with more than should have been necessary. In the insanity that ensued, Republicans accused Democrats of killing this vital bill.

Our economy is teetering precariously on the brink of disaster. As we’ve heard ad nauseum, “It’s not just about Wall Street, it’s about Main Street.” At the heart of the problem is the credit market, which provides money for people and companies to buy things, so that everyone benefits. People benefit by being able to have things today and pay for them in the future. Companies benefit in the same way, but also by having working capital to conduct business. Certainly, the credit market mess has an impact on Wall Street, because the companies that depend on credit to do business become less profitable when they can’t borrow to meet their normal business needs. The solution needs to be one that shores up the credit market, so that the rest of the economy isn’t held hostage. Then we can figure out a way to make sure this can’t happen again. This is a time for first aid – the patient is bleeding to death.

Congress needs to pass the bill, whether it’s a “bailout” bill or a “rescue” bill. But in doing so, it needs to ensure that it has the power to control the way the funds are allocated, and maximize the possible return on our citizenry’s unprecedented financial investment. Congress clearly cannot give a blank check to the Treasury, and hope that it doesn’t gamble all our money away.

So, in the end, what remains to be seen with whatever solution Congress adopts is whether, in this instance, Congressional “oversight” becomes a responsibility or continues to be an excuse.