The president and congressional leaders – both Democrats and Republicans — are pointing fingers at each other regarding the debt ceiling. When will someone in Washington, D.C., show leadership? And that means both parties. No one is showing leadership.

If the president and the Democrats were so concerned, why didn’t they deal with this before January 2011, when they controlled both houses of Congress? And if the Republicans were so concerned, why didn’t they state a specific plan, campaign on it and then compromise from that position? Nobody here is without blame, except the American public for electing these people. If there ever was a rationale for term limits, this is it, but certainly, these “leaders” would never agree to term limits.

President Obama’s speech to the nation Monday night blamed the entire debt crisis on former President Bush. Clearly, the nation’s debt increased under President Bush, but when President Obama took office, the debt totaled $9 trillion. Now, two and a half years later, the debt is at $14.3 trillion, and based on the president’s own forecasts, the debt will rise to at least $17 trillion by January 2013. So in four years, President Obama will have increased the debt by $8 trillion. During his first two-plus years, it has already grown by $5.3 trillion.

But, I digress. All this nonsense about default, debt service and non-payment of Social Security, Medicare payments and military pay is silly. The U.S. Treasury brings in about $200 billion per month from taxes and other revenue, and that is more than enough to pay these aforementioned items. Please, can we at least have a real discussion?

– The Dow Jones Industrial Average has not gone down, which would indicate it looks higher.
– Gold has reached new highs and would appear to have more room to grow.
– Oil is still in a trading range.
– Interest rates have increased somewhat, but the 30-year treasuries are still below 4.35 percent.
– The dollar has fallen some, because of the default talk, but it should recover once the situation is resolved.
– Real estate is still falling.
– The economy looks weaker and weaker.

Arnold

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Arnold Goldin

Prior to 1980, Arnold Goldin worked in various publicly held companies rising to the position of Assistant Corporate Controller of US Surgical Corporation. From 1980 to present, Arnold has served as President of Arnold S. Goldin & Associates, Inc. (and related and associated entities), providing accounting, tax and management services functions to individuals and corporations throughout the United States. Since 2002, Mr. Goldin has also written an e-zine related to geo-politics and finance, which can be found at arnoldsramblings.com.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent those of BIZPAC Review, its management, staff or advertisers.

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